


1000 Lives

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: 1000 Lives [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Anger, Arguing, Assassins & Hitmen, Christmas Town (Nightmare Before Christmas), Comedy, Crack Treated Seriously, Dark Comedy, Dark Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Demon Deals, Demon Sora, Fluff, Gummiphones (Kingdom Hearts), Hollow Bastion | Radiant Garden, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Keyblade Graveyard (Kingdom Hearts), Land of Departure (Kingdom Hearts), M/M, Mood Swings, Murder, Mysterious Tower (Kingdom Hearts), Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind DLC, POV Alternating, POV Third Person Limited, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Rage-form Sora, San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6), Scotland, Serial Killers, The Final World (Kingdom Hearts), Underage Drug Use, Vigilantism, not as dark as it sounds, rage-form, the caribbean (kingdom hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 54,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27829216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: In order to save Kairi, Sora makes a deal with a death goddess: he must kill 1000 evil people within 666 days or else everyone who died in the Keyblade Graveyard whom he brought back will die again.Unfortunately, after a year, Sora is way behind schedule—so when some of his friends find him, he has no choice but to let them help!
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: 1000 Lives [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175690
Comments: 40
Kudos: 51





	1. I Never Told You What I Do for a Living

**Author's Note:**

> -Despite the morbid subject matter, this is not a dark fic! It's mostly meant to be a fun thing, so don't expect lots of dark angst or anything.
> 
> -Off of that, characters might be a little OOC at times (especially Xion), mostly for comedic effects.
> 
> -Although the characters do discuss their kills, almost all actual killing takes place off-screen, so don't expect anything gory.
> 
> -POV rotates between many characters, and will be noted at the start of each scene.
> 
> -The idea for this was inspired by MCR's concept album "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge", the story of which is that a guy ends up in purgatory and his wife in hell, so the devil makes a deal with him saying that he'll revive the guy and then if the guy can kill a thousand people he'll be reunited with his wife... of course, that ends tragically with them reunited in hell, whereas this does have a happy ending!
> 
> -Off of that, chapter titles are all MCR song names. The songs themselves are only tangentially related to the chapters, if at all, so don't read too much into it.

**Day 372, noon;  
590 Remaining;  
Radiant Garden, street;  
POV Roxas**

“Roxas? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Lea joked.

“No, not a ghost. I mean, yes? Maybe. I don’t know.” Roxas breathed heavily, unsure what to think. “I think I saw Sora, but then he disappeared…”

Lea walked over and put his hand on Roxas’s shoulder. “Hey, slow down there. You saw Sora? Where? And what do you mean, disappeared?”

Roxas took a deep breath. “He was in the fountain plaza, just walking around, looking at a notebook. He seemed angry at it. I called his name and ran over to him, but then he looked at me like a deer-in-the-headlights and then he had these strange black wings and vanished.”

Lea bit his lip. “Roxas, are you sure you saw him?”

“Yes!” Roxas insisted, aware of why Lea was so skeptical. “Look; this time he dropped the book he was holding!” Roxas waved around a small black notebook. “It’s proof he was there! I swear, I am not hallucinating this time!”

Lea sighed, still unsure. “Let’s see it, then.” He took the book from Roxas and opened it. “It looks like some kind of record book… Let’s see: names, locations, dates, times, and… whoa.”

“What is it?” Roxas demanded.

“Um. You said you saw wings on him? What kind of wings?”

Roxas blinked, unsure of the line of questioning but glad that Lea was actually considering the idea. “Like I said, they were strange. Black, but little, and sorta bony? Like, torn bat wings or something… oh, and I think he had little horns, too, but it was difficult to tell with his hair. Wait, do you know what that is?”

Lea’s face was pale. “Maybe you’re not hallucinating after all; it reminds me of something I read once. Something tells me that whatever Sora did to get Kairi back was very, very, very bad… I’m going to head to the library to double-check.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 372, early afternoon;  
590 Remaining;  
Radiant Garden, library;  
POV Roxas**

“Are you positive it was Sora you saw?!” Riku demanded. Lea and Roxas had encountered him in the library shortly after they’d found the book Lea had been looking for, then immediately explained to him the situation.

“Yes!” Roxas insisted. Riku had been looking diligently for Sora the past year; why wasn’t he excited that he’d been found? Did he think Roxas was lying?

Riku shook his head. “No. I don’t believe it. He wouldn’t do something like that. Not even for Kairi.” Oh, he was in denial, not questioning Roxas’s sanity. Roxas tried not to roll his eyes. Sora wouldn’t flinch at becoming a serial killer if it meant his friends were safe; Riku should know that.

“Dude, the evidence is right here,” Lea said. “This is the notebook he dropped. It’s literally a hit list; look, there’s pages of names and locations with nothing else filled in, and of the ones that are filled in, the dates and methods of death are in his handwriting. Roxas and I looked up some of the ones that had been around here, and they checked out. Those are death records.”

“Okay, sure, but that doesn’t mean Sora killed them!”

“Well, to be fair, they all were shitty people anyway,” Roxas said, hoping that would help Riku accept it.

“Maybe we should talk to Merlin,” Lea suggested. “He lives in town, and is allegedly centuries old, so might have a better idea. But according to Roxas, he looked like the picture in that book, and he had a hit list.”

“But it’s a mythology book!” Riku continued to argue.

Lea shrugged. “Well, that’s why we should consult Merlin first, right?”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 372, mid afternoon;  
589 Remaining;  
Radiant Garden, Merlin's house;  
POV Roxas**

“Why, yes, of course demons exist,” Merlin said simply to the group in front of him. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, um, we read about them in a book, and weren’t sure if they were real or not. We’re just curious, and thought you might know more about them,” Riku half-lied.

Merlin stroked his beard. “Hmmm. And you came all the way to my house to ask about them?”

“Oh, we actually found it in the castle library,” Lea quickly supplied. “We were going to stop by here anyway to say hello to everyone so figured we’d ask you.”

“Oh! Well, I’m afraid the others are all out doing things,” Merlin told them, “But they should be back later. Let’s have some tea, and I can tell you about demons.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Roxas said in a hurry. They didn’t have time for tea; they needed to find Sora before he skipped town, if he hadn’t already. “We have other things to do. The book had lots of info; we just wanted to confirm they existed. Is it also true that they can revive the dead?”

“Why, yes,” Merlin confirmed. “But of course, one must pay a price. Demons don’t do anything for free.”

“What’s the price?” Riku asked, voice sounding a little anxious. He probably still hoped that Sora had not made a demon deal to revive Kairi, even though they all knew it was the most likely scenario given the evidence.

“Well, that depends entirely on the demon and what you want from them. Usually they’re up for negotiation, but reviving the dead… well, that most certainly will come with a very high price.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 372, late afternoon;  
589 Remaining;  
Radiant Garden, chasm;  
POV Sora**

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Sora said aloud, though he was alone. He paced back and forth in the ravine near Radiant Garden. He’d let Roxas see him. And then he’d lost the book in his escape. He grabbed his hair and pulled at it. “Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did I have to be so obvious? I knew they’d be here! Ugh. I still have more than half of them left; if I don’t get that list back…”

“So, we were right; you are killing people.”

Sora gave a start, then looked up, eyes wide, to see none other than Roxas only feet away from him. Lea and Riku flanked him. How the hell did they sneak up on him?! Sora started to back up, revealing the wings so he could use the ability that made it so humans couldn’t see him…

“Oh no you don’t!” Roxas grabbed Sora’s wrist, gripping it hard. “You are going to explain things. NOW.”

“I can’t!” Sora said, starting to panic. “Just, give me the list back, okay? And then forget you saw me.”

“No,” Riku said tersely, and Sora winced. Riku’s arms were crossed, and he looked angrier than Sora had seen him in years; so much for the tearful reunion Sora had imagined happening once all this was all over. Though to be fair, it seemed like Riku was holding tears in, struggling to remain angry. “Like Roxas said: you’re going to explain. Now. It’s been over a year; we’ve all been busting our asses looking for you, and you’re just running around avoiding us?!”

Sora stopped struggling and withered under the look Riku gave him, finally resigned to the fact he couldn’t get out of this without hurting anyone, though he still tried a little. “I mean, I figured you all wouldn’t exactly approve of… well, you seem to have the gist of it already,” he pointed out. “So can I have the list back? Kinda have work to do, and I’m way behind schedule...”

Roxas didn’t let Sora go. “You made some sort of demon deal to get Kairi back, didn’t you?”

“Ummm.” Sora sighed and slumped his shoulders. “Kinda? More like, a deal with the Lord of the Dead?”

Riku raised his eyebrows. “Hades?”

“Uhhh. No. Hades is technically her underling or something. Like, each world has its own rules about what happens to their dead, with separate people in charge, and she supervises them all? She also gets people who live in those in-between worlds that don’t have their own death person, or who are—what’s the world she used, um, transcience? Whatever that means.”

“Transient,” Riku automatically corrected. “It means they go between places.” Riku always corrected Sora’s vocab, and Sora never knew whether to be thankful or embarrassed for it. In Sora’s defense, he was an 8th-grade dropout and never liked to read much, whereas Riku had been a year ahead and loved reading.

“Oh! Yeah, that makes sense then, since apparently it includes all keyblade people. Anyway. Um. So I have about ten months left to kill the rest of the people on that list, or else everyone who was supposed to have died in the keyblade battle will die again.”

The three just looked confused; Sora remembered that, oops, they’d forgotten about dying that first time, and thought it was only Kairi. Well then.

“What do you mean, everyone?” Lea asked tepidly. “I thought it was only Kairi.”

“Um. The second time it was just Kairi, yeah,” Sora told them nervously.

“Second time,” Roxas said flatly. Sora winced; guess he’d have to explain.

“Ummmm. Yeah, the first time around all of us kinda died? But then I did some time travel stuff. I thought everyone else had forgotten that, as it technically never happened, but apparently the goddess person remembered that and was kinda pissed that I revived so many people so the deal actually included you all. Whoops.”

“So the deal is you have to kill that entire list of people or we all die,” Riku summed up.

“Yeah basically. I have 666 days in total. But I did negotiate some! They’re all bad people. Like, people who are serial killers and mob bosses and pedophiles and stuff. So it’s okay.” Apparently the goddess, or whatever she was, did not like ‘people who played reaper’, in her words, so had been happy to make that the terms.

Riku sighed in exasperation. “Well, how many do you have left?”

“Um. Nearly 600? I think?”

Riku looked shocked. “Th-That many?! How many did you agree to kill?”

Sora fiddled with his thumbs. “Um. Well, to be fair, I didn’t know when she said ‘some’ that to her ‘some’ would be a thousand. So, yeah, gotta kill 600 more.”

“And have about ten more months to finish it,” Lea realized. “You’re not going to be able to do it, are you?”

Sora glared at him. “I will too do it!”

“Of course you will.” Roxas grinned. “Cuz we’re going to help you!”

“We are?” Lea asked, appearing shocked.

“Well, I am. Riku, what about you? You in?”

Riku looked at Roxas like he had three heads. “Of course. You know I’d do anything for Sora.” Sora blushed at that, although he wondered if he should be worried about the fact that ‘anything’ apparently included mass murder—although Sora was one to talk.

“Are you joking?” Lea said incredulously. “You’re talking about killing humans!”

“Yeah but they’re all evil people, right?” Roxas pointed out. “So technically, we’re saving more people by killing them, because if we left them alone they’d be out killing good people and doing other horrible things.”

“Yeah, we’d basically be vigilantes,” Riku agreed. “Like Batman.”

“Batman doesn’t kill people; it’d be closer to Deadpool,” Sora clarified automatically, not yet fully processing the discussion.

Lea shuffled slightly. “Well, if you put it that way…”

“Good, then it’s decided. Sora, we’re going to help you,” Roxas told him, in a tone indicating it was not up for negotiation.

“You should have just told us from the start, Sora,” Riku chided. “We could have finished everything by now.”

Sora gave a start, his brain finally fully catching up with the discussion. They were saying they’d help him kill people! Sora couldn’t let them do that! But, he was rather far behind, and if he didn’t make the quota, everyone he saved would die… but did they realize what they were getting into? “You know this isn’t the same as defeating heartless and nobodies, right? And it’s not like killing people like Xehanort in big battles, either. This is more… hands on. And we need to be creative, because if we get caught that’s game over—we can’t kill people if we’re in prison. It’s not like a big battle against clearly-evil people, where we can just stab and shoot people where others see… well I guess technically I can, since I can become invisible, but I’d have to do stuff like make it look like a public suicide or frame someone... Anyway, the point is, it’s way different.”

Roxas nodded. “Makes sense. Still gonna help though.”

Sora smiled, and realized he’d actually started to tear up as he grabbed Roxas into a hug. “Thank you!” He still disliked dragging his friends into his problems, but it seemed like the only way he’d ever reach the quota of a thousand kills within the time left. Sora stepped back. “Just, don’t tell—”

Sora was cut off as he was suddenly wrapped in Riku’s embrace from behind. Sora laughed a little as he leaned back into Riku’s chest, then wiggled around in the silverette's arms to face him so Sora could return the hug. He honestly was surprised it had taken Riku this long to hug him. Which he seemed to want to do for the foreseeable future, based on his grip and tears now heavily falling.

“S-Sora, I… I looked _everywhere_ for you,” Riku stammered in a croaky whisper. 

Sora blinked, realizing tears were falling from his eyes too and recognizing the phrase as the one he’d used when he found Riku at the end of his second journey. Their positions were reversed, including… “Riku, I didn’t—”

“Don’t you dare say it,” Riku hissed, realizing too. 

“I take it you were going to say ‘don’t tell the others’ before the mini sob-fest?” Lea interjected.

“Don’t tell the others what?” came a high-pitched female voice. “And why do you get to do a group hug without me?”

Everyone jumped, looking up to see a dark-haired girl sitting on a ledge on the cliff face above them. “Xion!” Sora gasped. How long had she been there?

Xion laughed; it sounded like delicate bells. She jumped down, landing next to Sora. “Nice to formally meet you! I’m Xion, and I was in your heart for a couple years,” she said, holding out her hand. 

Sora nodded, speechless. He untangled himself from Riku and Roxas and bypassed Xion’s hand, going in for a hug instead, causing the girl to let out a squeak of surprise. “It’s nice to meet you,” Sora said, realizing he hadn’t replied yet. He stepped back. “I guess you want an explanation, huh?”

Xion laughed again. “Actually, I heard most of it. Don’t worry, I won’t tell. But you can’t include Axel and Roxas in something without including me! Even if it is mass murder.” 

“Okay,” Sora agreed, realizing there was no arguing it. “So yeah, as Lea said, don’t tell the others please. Both about the killing thing and me being back.”

Riku frowned. “You don’t want the others to know you’re back? Sora, we’ve all been looking for you for a year. It’s been… painful.”

Sora bit his lip, considering that. He felt guilty about deceiving them, but… “And say what? ‘Surprise, I’ve actually been avoiding you for a year because I’m currently a demon who has been busy murdering people because if I don’t you’re all going to die’?”

“So you actually are a demon?” Roxas asked, fiddling with Sora’s wings. Sora tried to hold in a laugh.

“R-reaper, technically,” Sora clarified. “Or, p-partly. I’ll explain l-later, w-when we’re not s-so out in the o-open.”

“I think those are ticklish, Rox,” Xion noted, a sly grin on her face. Sora apparently had not been hiding that as well as he’d thought.

Lea grinned too. “Revenge for hiding?”

Roxas and Xion agreed, and Sora soon found himself doubled over in laughter as the three tickled him. Sora tried running to Riku to hide, but the silverette just grinned too and held him tightly, wings bared for the others to have unlimited access.

Once they were finished, Sora was basically jelly, muscles limp and out of breath, upright only because Riku still held him tightly around the waist. Sora felt the happiest he’d been in… well, he couldn’t actually remember. Riku grinned again, noticing this, and scooped Sora up in his arms bridal-style. Sora laughed again as he wrapped his arms around the silverette’s neck and buried his head in Riku’s shoulder. “I missed you so much,” Sora mumbled.

“I missed you too,” Riku whispered; Sora realized he was crying. Both of them were.

“Alright, alright, get a room,” Lea called, and the two boys blushed furiously.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 372, night;  
589 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

“Okay, so how do you want to do this?” Lea asked. “Split up? Go in groups? Sora, how have you been doing this?” 

The group sat around a small table in a studio apartment Sora had rented in San Fransokyo; being in a city, it gave them the most anonymity. It had been acting as a home base for him, and looked like it: tables were covered in phone books and census records from many different worlds; a bookshelf held mostly books on killing methods; an old computer sat on a corner desk; the walls had giant cork boards full of maps and pins and pictures of victims; a lock box held various weapons and poisons… basically, it looked like the stereotype of a serial killer’s place. Which, technically, Sora was—and Riku was about to be too, along with Lea, Roxas, and Xion. It felt so surreal… of all the things Riku ever imagined himself doing, joining a group of assassins led by Sora hadn’t been anywhere near the radar.

“Well, firstly, we don’t want to kill too many people in a single area all at once,” Sora, seated in Riku’s lap (there were only 4 chairs around the small circular table, so that had been Sora’s solution—and Riku was not complaining at all), pointed out. “Too suspicious. Only exception is if they’re all in the same place, which conveniently eleven of them were one day because they were in some sort of murder cult. I framed that as the cult leader doing a murder-suicide, drink-the-koolaid type of thing. Anyway, so I’ve been shuffling between worlds, generally killing an average of two or three then going to the next one. But you need to be aware of the population: some worlds you can kill more in at once, like this one, since there’s so many people, but in others you might only be able to get away with one. The phone books and census record often have the addresses of the people on the list, but it can be difficult to pinpoint others, so it can take some research and whatnot to find them. Thankfully the list does have the world the person is supposed to be on at least.”

Lea whistled. “Whew. Sounds like a lot of work.”

Sora nodded. “Thankfully I don’t need to sleep now—perk of being a reaper—so that helps, but yeah, it can be really tiring.”

“Good thing we’re here to help then!” Xion cheered happily. Maybe too happily; Riku wondered if they should be concerned about her enthusiasm.

Roxas, apparently thinking the same, gave Xion a flat look. “You are way too excited about this.”

“And you’re not?”

“Why don’t we divide things up,” Riku suggested, steering them back on topic. “We’ll need someone here with the book looking for addresses and coordinating things. Then we’ll need one or two people doing research on those whose addresses we can’t find in the books, and the remainder can do the killings. We can rotate jobs.”

“Sounds good,” Xion agreed.

“You sure you don’t want to get anyone else to help?” Lea asked.

“No!” Sora insisted.

“You know they’d probably all help you,” Roxas pointed out.

Sora looked at Roxas skeptically. “Pretty sure that isn’t the case.”

“Oh! Kairi is the issue, isn’t it?” Xion said in realization. “You don’t want her finding out that you basically traded a thousand lives to bring just a few back!”

“Uh. Technically just her actually.” Sora said. “You were brought back already through time-travel stuff, not the deal. Even though you’ll all die too if I—we—fail. Which is my bad; I didn’t pay enough attention to wording.”

Riku cringed. “Yeah, I can see how you wouldn’t want Kairi knowing about that.” She wouldn’t be pleased at all to learn that Sora had to kill people for her sake… nor would most people.

RIIIING! RIIIING!

Everyone jumped, then Riku realized it was his GummiPhone. “Speak of the devil,” he muttered, signaling Sora to move out of his lap; the brunette fled far away from the phone, and Riku pressed the answer button.

“Hey, Riku!” Kairi said through the phone. “Naminé and I were—hey, where are you right now?”

Riku glanced behind him and cringed. The background was a cork board filled with… well, it was clearly something a serial killer would have. He scooted his chair around to provide a different background… which happened to be a shelf full of poisons. “Uhhhh. Movie set?” Riku ventured.

Kairi raised an eyebrow. “A… movie set.”

“Um, yeah. Some friends of ours are doing a short film for a true-crime film festival. I’m here with Lea, Roxas, Xion, and S—some other people you don’t know. But they went to get coffee.” Riku tried not to cringe; he’d nearly said Sora’s name!

“Hi Kairi!” Xion called happily from behind Riku. “I’m gonna be a serial killer!”

“Um. Congrats?” Kairi said, obviously still processing things.

“That sounds fun!” said someone next to Kairi. The GummiPhone moved to show Naminé’s face. “You should show us it when you’re done.” She had that knowing look on her face; hopefully she wouldn’t tell Kairi they were lying. Or rather, Riku was; technically what Xion said was true, as strange as it still seemed.

“So, what’cha calling about?” Lea asked, as he and Roxas nudged into the camera’s view.

“Oh!” Kairi’s eyes lit up. “Cid thinks they might have a lead on where Sora is!”

Pretty much all four of them jumped slightly in surprise, Riku’s eyes automatically shifted to meet Sora’s briefly; the brunette’s eyes were wide. “Oh, really?”

“Yeah! He’d like everyone to gather at Merlin’s asap!”

Everyone looked at each other. “Immediately?” Riku asked. This was probably the worst time for such.

“That is what asap means, yes,” Kairi said, sounding slightly annoyed.

“Um. Can’t he tell us whatever it is through a phone conference?”

Kairi frowned. “He says he needs to show us it in-person. Something about data?”

Sora opened his mouth, seeming to realize what it was about, then closed it again. He grabbed a pen and notepad from next to the landline on the nearby nightstand and started scribbling.

“Uh. Data, huh. And that needs to be in-person why?” Riku wondered again.

“I don’t know! He just wants us there! I thought you’d be happy that there’s a possible lead on Sora!” Yeah, Kairi was definitely irritated now.

Sora carefully slid the note across the table to Riku and the others who were crowded around the phone. The note read: _It’s a datascape with data about the former Organization. They made a little data version of me to fight them in hopes that it can unlock the data they contain, hoping it has information. Which, of course, it doesn’t._

Riku looked at Sora inquisitively, silently wondering how he knew that, and the brunette wrote another note: _I scouted the place today. Invisibility, remember? The one good thing about this._ Riku chuckled at that; leave it to Sora to find a silver lining to being a demon assassin.

“What the hell do you keep looking at and laughing about?” Kairi asked, voice shrill. 

Riku gave a start, not expecting Kairi’s anger. Everyone flinched; Sora even backed up a step—and tripped over a fallen phone book, letting out a curse in the process.

Kairi looked surprised. “Riku? Is there someone else there with you?” she demanded, then looked slightly confused. “Wait, was—” The GummiPhone went blank, the call ended.

The four who had been crowded around it looked surprised.

“Did the phone glitch?” Lea wondered, as it had ended on their end.

The phone began ringing again, Kairi calling back. The red ‘don’t answer’ button was pressed, though no one pressed it. Riku looked around in confusion.

“Invisibility, remember?” came a voice from next to Riku’s ear, and he swerved around in surprise, finding Sora’s grin in his face.

Riku swore. “Don’t do that!”

“You know, hanging up on her like that’s only going to cause more issues,” Roxas pointed out.

Sora shrugged. “Those are issues for future-us.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 372, night;  
589 Remaining;  
Kairi's home;  
POV Kairi**

Kairi stared at her GummiPhone blankly. Either Riku’s phone had randomly died at an opportune moment or he’d hung up on her and was now refusing her calls. Who was it that let out the curse? It almost sounded like… but no, if Sora were back, they’d tell her! She turned to Naminé, asking an unspoken question.

Naminé shook her head. “I don’t know; my connection with him broke after he left to find you. All I can do now is tell that his heart still exists somewhere… but, I do know they were lying about the movie, if that helps.”

Kairi frowned hard. Riku almost never lied to her; what was this big thing they were all hiding?

Naminé shifted uncomfortably. “Well, more accurately, Riku was lying about it.”

Kairi furrowed her eyes in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Xion wasn’t lying.”

Kairi blinked, even more confused now. “But she said…” Kairi’s eyes widened. “There’s no way she was serious! If Riku was lying, but she wasn’t, and the scenery… Naminé, what in the world are those four doing!?”

Naminé shrugged. “I know as much as you do. But yes, it does sound like they’re planning something very ill-advised.”


	2. House of Wolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Roxas, Ventus gets captured for being a 'wanted criminal'. Also thanks to Roxas, all the other keyblade people now think they're rehabilitating 'Vanitas'. Roxas and Sora get into a fight about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, you're getting this chapter earlier than expected! Figured I can't sleep so why not.
> 
> You may have noticed that the notes yesterday said there would be less soriku in this story than my usual ones, but now the note is not there. That's because it turns out I lied. I had some scenes I forgot about, and then had more soriku ideas last night that I want to add, and now it's heavily soriku (mostly in the second half, and no smut or anything, although there are jokes and implications about it. Keeping it T-rated!).

**Day 386, evening;  
558 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

“Look look look!” Xion yelled, rushing into their makeshift base waving what appeared to be a newspaper. “Front page!”

Lea and Riku, the former searching through phone books and the latter using the cork board to help track someone down, turned towards Xion, who pushed a pile of census books off the table to spread out the paper.

“That’s your work, huh?” Lea said, with a slight air of trepidation. Riku, too, was a bit disquieted; was Xion actually bragging about murdering people?

Xion beamed. “Yes! It’s perfect, isn’t it?”

Lea picked up the paper; as he read the article, his eyebrows progressively raised higher and higher. When finished he asked, “Weren’t you only supposed to take out three people in that gang, not… uh, how many is that?”

Xion pouted. “It’s not my fault it erupted into a gang war... Besides, technically I didn’t kill any of them, I just encouraged the fighting.”

“She has a point there, Lea,” Riku said, chuckling warily. He wasn’t sure how he felt; yeah, their marks had died as desired, but to take out that many innocents too? Well, perhaps they could justify it; if it was a gang, they were probably all bad people anyway, he figured. Or, maybe not? Riku didn’t have much experience with gangs. Well, thinking the former assuaged his conscience so that’s what he’d do.

“You’re not going to kill more than necessary every time, are you?” Lea asked with apprehension.

Xion frowned. “Huh? What’s wrong? Did I mess up?” she questioned, looking and sounding somewhat stressed at the possibility that she did poorly when she thought she’d done well, which was perfectly understandable.

Riku let out a low sigh. “Lea, this is your domain; you were in charge of teaching her morals, right? Go do that.”

“Now? Seriously?” Lea complained.

“Yes.”

Lea sighed and pulled Xion over to sit on the bed of the studio apartment, pushing some junk out of the way first. He motioned for Xion to sit next to him, which she did, and he began to explain to her right from wrong. Riku vaguely wondered if Roxas would need that lesson, too; theoretically he’d retained some basic things like that from Sora, as opposed to Xion who had been a blank slate, but they’d both been raised by Xemnas and the Organization and who knows what they’d learned there.

They’d been at this for two weeks now (in-between their general duties, so as not to arouse suspicion by suddenly being unavailable for missions, training sessions, and searching for Sora—the latter they of course didn’t actually need to do, so that’s what they replaced with the killing, unbeknownst to everyone else), and it was going pretty well so far, knock on wood. Xion turned out to be the best at it; she had a way of manipulating things so she technically didn’t have to get her hands dirty, like with the gang war, arousing less suspicion. She’d also orchestrated a boating accident, a car crash, and a bear attack. Lea preferred doing things involving fire: arson, gas explosions, bombs, and various other acts of flame-based destruction were guaranteed with him. Riku used his darkness to his advantage, sneaking up on the targets in alleyways and other dark corners, using a sleep spell, and then stuffing their lungs with darkness, effectively suffocating them without leaving a trace. It was a slower death than other methods, but it was painless for the target, less messy, and left no chance of being caught. Roxas preferred more straightforward hands-on methods like arranging murder-suicides and straight up pushing someone off a building. Sora, taking advantage of being able to turn invisible, liked sneaking poisons into things. It was simple, effective, and usually mistaken as a natural death, especially if the person had been alone in a seemingly locked house. A lot of their targets died in seemingly locked places, thanks to their keyblades. They’d taken out, collectively, 31 people on the list; at this rate, they’d be done early—by their calculations, they needed to kill a minimum of 14 people per week to reach the goal on time.

BOOM! The door suddenly crashed open, and Roxas stomped in before slamming it behind him.

Lea jumped up and ran over to his friend. “Roxas! Are you okay? What happened?” Riku resisted rolling his eyes; Lea was always concerned whenever Roxas got angry or upset despite the fact that it was a daily occurrence. Then again, Riku was one to talk, considering he got the same way over Sora.

Roxas growled, anger practically wafting off him. “Let’s just say I can’t go back to DunBroch anytime soon.”

“Ooooh?” Xion hopped over too. “Did Roxy get caught?” she teased.

Roxas glared at Xion. “Don’t make me hit you.”

“You’d never hit me,” Xion said confidently, and then stuck out her tongue. Roxas responded by grabbing her tongue, and she giggled, playfully slapping him away.

“So, what happened?” Riku asked, getting worried. If people found out they were doing this… 

Roxas sighed and collapsed onto a run-down couch they’d dragged in from the street a few days prior. “As I was leaving the target’s house, his friends decided to visit. Very large heavily-armored friends. I got put in prison but escaped. So, yeah. Can’t go back.”

Lea grinned. “Well look at you, Roxy! All grown up now, being an escaped convict!”

“Don’t. Call. Me. That.” Roxas growled as Lea expertly dodged a kick to his groin.

“What, ‘escaped convict’?” Lea teased.

“No, the other thing!”

“Oooh, you mean—”

“Don’t say it!”

The door creaked open, and Sora walked in. “Hey, Roxy,” he said, ruffling Roxas’s hair as he walked by to lean against Riku.

“Not you too!” Roxas whined.

Riku chuckled and put his arm around Sora’s waist. Despite the situation, he felt instantly content with Sora next to him. In fact, the past two weeks had been the best he’d felt all year. Yeah, he might be a serial killer now, but Riku was with Sora, and that’s who it was for, so that was okay.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 438, afternoon;  
449 Remaining;  
DunBroch, woods;  
POV Aqua**

“DunBroch, huh?” Ventus mused, trying to figure out the map as he walked down a woods trail. Aqua was skeptical about Ventus navigating, but he had insisted; hopefully she didn't regret allowing it.

“Hey, watch it,” Aqua warned, steering Ven away from walking headfirst into a tree. “Maybe I should take a look at the map.”

Ventus shook his head. “No, I got it, I think. It should be… oh! Yes, there’s the trail marker!” Ventus dashed ahead through the thick trees, excited for their mission in a land he’d never seen before.

“Wait, Ven, I don’t think that’s—ah, nevermind,” Aqua said as she jogged to follow Ventus.

The two walked for quite some time—so long, in fact, that the sun began to set.

“Are you SURE this is the right way?” Aqua asked for what felt like the hundredth time, becoming annoyed. Ventus kept insisting he had it, but there was no way the city was this far away from the ship.

“Yeah, of course!” Ventus said again.

“Let me see the map,” Aqua insisted, patience wearing thin. She’d tried to stay composed, but they hadn’t packed any food because they were supposed to be going to a town that had such and she was hungry!

“No, I—”

Aqua snatched it away from Ventus. One glance told her that… “You had it upside down. We just walked three hours in the wrong direction,” she said tersely.

“What! That’s impossible!”

Aqua sighed in frustration, but managed not to snap at the boy as she showed him the proper way to read the map; the two then turned around and began walking the way they had come. Aqua calmed down via a series of deep breathing exercises as they walked.

“Hey, look at that!” Ventus exclaimed after a few hours, pointing at a glowing blue orb off in the distance. “Let’s follow it.”

Aqua put her arm out to stop Ventus from wandering towards it. “I’ve heard of those; they’re will-o-wisps. They lead people into danger.” That wasn’t quite true—they actually were good in some worlds—but they had no way of knowing if this was one of those worlds. They could ask the townspeople—if they ever managed to get to the town; at this rate it’d be morning by the time they did! “Besides, we have no time to wander off,” Aqua pointed out. 

Ventus sighed in disappointment, wilting slightly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Aqua bit her lip, having a brief urge to give in and let Venus chase it; if it were dangerous, they could escape, she was certain. Ventus had had almost no childhood, at least not that he’d remembered. Maybe it’d be good to allow him some childish adventures… tomorrow, in daylight.

After another half hour of following the map, a giant black bear ran past the two, followed by what appeared to be an army of ill-groomed warriors with spears and spiky helmets. Or, not an army? The body paint, armor, and clothing appeared to be in four different styles; were they an alliance of lands, teaming up to stop the bear?

Suddenly some of them stopped, staring directly at Aqua and Ventus—and not in a friendly manner.

“Um. Can we help you?” Aqua asked nervously.

A few of the guys who ran ahead jogged back. “What’s goin' on here?” one asked the others.

“Innit that the kid who killed Alistair?” one of the first to stop asked.

“Aye, that’s definitely ‘im!” another guy declared, rushing over.

“I think we should run,” Aqua whispered to Ventus, wondering what the group of seven large guys and growing were talking about. Ventus hadn’t killed anyone; it was his first time here! Unless…

“Good idea,” Ventus replied, turning to run—right into one of the largest guys, triple Ventus's height and weight, who grabbed the boy’s upper arms and picked him up easily.

“Ven!” Aqua called, reaching out to him, only for two of the others to grab her, one per arm.

“I 'ave 'alf a mind to kill ye right 'ere,” the one holding Ventus growled. “Alistair was me best friend!”

“But I didn’t kill him!” Ventus wailed, kicking his legs fruitlessly.

“Oy, if ye do that, ye’ll be the one in trouble!” one of the other guys scolded the one holding Ventus. “Take ‘im back to the town an' toss the two in the dungeon; we’ll let the king decide their fate after the 'unt!”

“What! But we’ll miss the 'unt!” one of the guys holding Aqua complained.

Ventus looked at Aqua with a silent question while the men argued, and Aqua shook her head slightly. It made no sense to fight here, especially when they’d need to fight this many presumably innocent, albeit smelly, guys; instead, they should wait and try explaining things to the king, as it must be a case of mistaken identity, even though the man seemed absolutely certain it was Ventus who killed his friend. Wait… someone who looked like Ventus… it couldn’t be, could it?

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 439, afternoon;  
447 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Roxas**

RIIIIING! RIIIIIING!

“Ugh, can’t I have a second to rest?” Roxas muttered from his place lying on the couch, where he had been taking a nap as he’d been out most the previous night trying to catch a particularly difficult mark—the woman had been a serial killer who was out hunting for a victim of her own. Roxas had caught her shortly before she killed a young boy, which he felt particularly proud of; he was now a hero in that world, instead of a wanted criminal like he was in a certain other world. Roxas sat up and scrambled to find his phone buried in the couch cushions, answering without paying attention to the caller. “What d’ya want?”

“Roxas!” King Mickey said. “Where are you? Yen Sid wants—” The mouse froze mid-sentence, staring at something behind Roxas.

“Oh, shit,” Roxas swore, any lingering sleep instantly flying away; Sora, the only other person in the room, had been perched on the arm of the couch, playing a game on Riku's Gummiphone (Sora had long ago discarded his, but hopefully soon they’d be able to get him a new one), and was now glaring at Roxas with slightly glowing eyes—right, night vision—clearly mad as his wings were flared out and horns visible. Fangs too, apparently; Roxas hadn’t noticed that before. It was dark though, as they’d had the lights off, so maybe Mickey hadn’t seen?

“Is that Sora?” Mickey demanded.

“Uh… no? It’s, uh…” Roxas wracked his brain for some sort of answer. “Vanitas?” Yeah, that worked. Vanitas looked like Sora, and it was dark enough not to notice the difference in hair color. Oh wait, there was a teenie problem with that though… 

“Vanitas!” Mickey gasped. “But he—what in the worlds is going on, Roxas? First Ven is captured in DunBroch because someone who looks identical to him is wanted for murder, and now you’re hanging out with Vanitas, who is the embodiment of darkness, an enemy, and supposed to have been destroyed?!”

“Ven got captured?!” Roxas gasped, sitting straight up. 

“Yes, because apparently YOU are an escaped convict wanted for murder! Explain, now!”

“Um…” Roxas pressed the ‘call end’ button. “We’re fucked, aren’t we,” Roxas said to Sora.

“Uh, no, you’re the one fucked, Roxas,” the brunette said moodily. “He thinks I’m Vanitas. Could you maybe, I dunno, check your surroundings next time you answer the phone!?”

“Excuse me? You’re the one who went all reaper instead of just turning invisible when he saw you!” Roxas yelled, jumping up.

“Well, you’re the one who got caught committing murder last month!” Sora responded loudly. “Mickey would not have called if you’d been more careful! And Ven wouldn’t have been in trouble, either!”

“How was I supposed to know he would go there so soon after?! Ugh, why am I even helping you with this?!”

Sora glared at Roxas. “You’re the one who insisted! I’d have been fine on my own!”

“Excuse me?! You were so far behind there was no chance in hell of making the deadline! Without me, we’d all be dead in less than eight months!”

Sora puffed out his cheeks, clearly trying to think of an argument to that, but there really wasn’t one.

Roxas grinned petulantly and crossed his arms. “Ha. I win.” Then his eyes grew wide as Sora literally flew at him, growling. Roxas blocked, feeling pain on his arm as he shoved Sora away. “Ah, fuck, Sora! Seriously!? You seriously bit me?! Oh, now it’s on!” Roxas stormed over to Sora, preparing a punch…

The lights turned on, and both teens froze in surprise.

“What the flying fuck is going on in here?” Riku asked coldly.

Five minutes later, Sora and Roxas were sitting on opposite sides of the couch, not looking at each other, with Riku standing in front and processing what the two had just told him.

“Okay,” Riku finally said. “Firstly, Sora, biting people with your fangs is bad. Well, biting people in general is bad, really. Secondly, I think we can work with this. If Mickey truly does think Sora is Vanitas, then we can use that to better hide Sora.”

“What do you mean?” Sora asked.

“Well, it’s a known fact that all of us have been hanging out a lot lately, except for you Sora. So they’ll probably conclude that if Roxas is hanging out with Vanitas, so am I, and Lea and Xion too. So we just have to make that true.”

“Oh, I get it!” Roxas said. “And the reaper features even fit into that, if you think about it.” Vanitas was dark, and so was demon stuff.

“Wait, get what?” Sora asked in confusion.

Riku chuckled. “You’re going to be Vanitas.”

Sora’s eyes grew wide. “Whaaaaaat? But how? I don’t have black hair!”

Roxas rolled his eyes. “Seriously? It’s called hair dye.”

“Oh, right. Haha. So, I gotta be Vanitas then? But won’t people be mad about him being back?”

Riku shook his head. “We can say we’re trying to reform you. That’s why we’ve been spending so much time together and keeping secrets! It’s perfect!”

“What’s perfect?” Lea asked, as he and Xion entered the apartment.

Sora jumped up and beamed. “I’m going to be Vanitas, and you’re gonna rehabitulate me!"

“Rehabilitate,” Riku corrected automatically.

“Whatever. Basically Roxas was stupid and now Mickey thinks he’s hanging out with Vanitas and Ven got arrested because they thought he was Roxas.” Sora turned and glared at Roxas again, growling slightly.

“Again,” Roxas growled back, giving Sora a glare in return, “You were the stupid one; you could have easily gone invisible, but no, you had to get angry and go all reaper—yeah, like that—oh, crap.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 439, afternoon;  
447 Remaining;  
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Mickey**

Mickey stared at the GummiPhone in shock. Vanitas was back? And hanging out with Roxas? Ventus, who was also in Yen Sid’s office along with Aqua and Yen Sid, had a look of total shock on his face. Aqua seemed more distressed over how Ven was reacting, and Yen Sid seemed to be struggling to maintain his regular pensieve demeanor.

Once everyone there had calmed down and processed things, they decided to call a meeting with all the Masters. Three were there already, which just left Terra and Riku. First they called Terra, who said he’d immediately head to the Tower, and then they called Riku, who had a wholly different reaction.

Riku, after they tried calling a couple times, answered the phone in what appeared to be a dingy bathroom. It sounded like fighting was going on outside it. “Hey, what’s up, Mickey?” he asked, clearly trying to maintain an air of calmness despite being stressed and anxious.

“Where are you?” Mickey wondered. It looked like an awfully shady bathroom.

“Oh, uh, that’s not important,” Riku said dismissively. “So, do you need something? If it’s just a social call, I’ll have to call you back.”

Mickey briefly wondered why Riku was acting so evasive, but there were more important things to discuss. He explained, “We want to have a meeting with all the Masters at the Tower. It’s super urgent, so if you can get here—”

“Sorry, Mickey, I’ll have to miss it,” Riku said quickly.

Mickey looked at the screen in surprise. Did Riku mishear? “It’s extremely urgent,” Mickey pressed. “We need you here.”

“Ah, I dunno…”

“It’s about Roxas,” Mickey said, hoping to catch the silverette’s attention with that, as the two were pretty good friends now. Mickey suspected they'd bonded over the trauma of losing Sora, as they'd been fairly abrasive towards each other until recently, which was understandable given their history. “We think he’s in trouble.”

Riku cringed, though not from Mickey’s words; something had slammed against the door behind him.

“I’ll gut you, you fucking demon spawn!” someone yelled, answered by a deep guttural growl, and followed by a third higher-pitched voice saying “Boys!”

Mickey blinked. “Riku? Was that Roxas I just heard? And Xion?”

“Uhhh. Well. Um.” Something slammed against the door again. “I gotta go, sorry!” The GummiPhone went blank.

Mickey looked around at the others, all who seemed equally shocked at the conversation—even Yen Sid.

“I think,” Yen Sid said shakily, “we need to call a meeting with all the keyblade wielders, not just the Masters.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 439, evening;  
447 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

Riku put his hand on his face and leaned against the door with a groan. He was going to be in so much trouble for that! But there really were more pressing matters—shortly before the call, Sora and Roxas’s fight had gotten so intense that Sora had entered what the brunette had named ‘rage-form’, which seemed to have only been enhanced by becoming a reaper. It certainly was lasting longer. At this rate, they’d have to end it by calming the rage rather than letting it wear off—which would be Riku’s job. Riku steeled himself, then exited the bathroom to assess the situation.

Sora and Roxas were currently at a stand-off, both growling at each other. Okay, that was progress, Riku supposed. Better than violently attacking each other and destroying everything—they’d definitely need to do some repair work after this, and get new books. Riku slowly approached Sora; when Sora turned to growl at him, Riku put his hands up in a gesture of peace as he carefully and slowly approached while Sora eyed him suspiciously. Out of the corner of his eye, Riku noticed Lea and Xion had done the same with Roxas, each having a hand on the blonde’s shoulders to hold him back.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Riku told Sora soothingly, close enough now to put a hand on his shoulder too. Sora seemed a little calmer at that, although he still maintained the cloak of darkness and felt tense beneath it, as though he could attack at any moment. Riku put his other hand on Sora’s other shoulder and met his eyes, which were pure crimson—every part, not just the irises. Sora returned the stare, red eyes tumultuous, irises seeming to flicker to blue sporadically. Riku kept staring. Once the red had faded from the sclera and pupil and the irises were flickering to blue more often than red, and the darkness cloak began lessening, Riku pulled Sora into a tight hug. The darkness then vanished completely, and Sora collapsed into Riku’s arms, unconscious.

Riku sat on the floor, moving Sora so the brunette was curled in his lap. He looked so peaceful now, although he was covered in bruises and scratches, most self-inflicted from running into things or lashing out with the sharp tendrils of darkness that he never bothered to dodge when they whipped around to lash back at him. Riku absentminded threaded his fingers through Sora’s hair as he took a deep breath, calming his racing heart. He started using cure spells on the wounds.

Roxas sighed; he was now wedged between Xion and Lea on the couch, who were tending to his wounds too. “I’m sorry,” Roxas tersely apologized, probably not very serious but convinced to do so by the others. “I took things too far.”

Riku took a deep breath, trying not to let too much anger seep in. More fighting wouldn’t help at all. “It happens. If he slipped into this, he was probably already too much on edge before the fight—anything could have tipped him over.”

“This has happened before?” Lea asked in disbelief. “Since when?”

“Oh, for a long time,” Xion answered. “It’d been there at least since I entered his heart.”

Riku nodded. “It started after he became a heartless. At first it only happened when he messed up drive forms, but then started appearing at other times too. He calls it ‘rage form’. The working theory is that Sora typically deals with his emotions by shoving them away, which feeds the darkness in him until it finally bursts out in an intense flare of emotion combined with the darkness, which he has almost no control over and can’t remember after—thankfully he generally only hurts those attacking him while in it, so usually that means heartless and nobodies as it’s much more likely to appear in battle, but as you just saw he can’t actually distinguish friend from foe if a friend attacks. He and I had started working on healthier ways of dealing with feelings shortly before the final battle with Xehanort, but it looks like he’s started suppressing things too much again.”

Lea whistled. “Wow. And I always thought he was pretty much pure light.”

Roxas laughed once. “Seriously? You do realize I came from him, right? Plus, Xehanort wanted him as a vessel—you think he’d want someone who was pure light for that?”

Lea sighed. “Guess you’re right about that. I just… wow.”

Riku nodded. “Yeah. I was surprised when I first saw it, too. It’s pretty terrifying.”

“Mmmm,” came a mumble from Riku’s lap, and Sora’s eyes flickered open. “R’ku?” he muttered, only half conscious. “What’s going…" Sora, suddenly much more awake, sat up and looked around, wide-eyed as he noted the damage, recognizing the tell-tale scratches on the walls. “Did I do this?”

Riku pulled Sora close to him, Sora’s head laying against his heart. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re back now. You didn’t hurt anyone.” As tears began to well in Sora’s eyes, Riku noticed Sora trying to hold them back. “Hey, let the tears fall,” Riku told Sora. “Remember? You need to let your feelings out, not hold them in. It’s okay to cry.”

Sora clutched Riku’s shirt, taking Riku’s advice and starting to sob. “I’m so sorry!” he cried. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I—”

“Shhhh,” Riku said, rubbing soothing circles on Sora’s back. “It’s okay.”

After a few minutes, Sora calmed. Riku’s shirt was soaked with Sora’s tears and snot, but it was a small trade-off if it meant helping Sora feel better. Sora looked towards the couch at the sea-salt trio. “I’m sorry,” he said earnestly. “We were fighting before this, right?” he asked Roxas. “I don’t remember much about what it was about, but I’m sure it didn’t warrant… that. Did… did I hurt you?”

Roxas sighed, seeming to have calmed as well. “Just a few scratches and bruises, nothing a few cures spells couldn’t heal. You looked much worse. But…” Roxas looked pretty uncomfortable; he clearly wasn’t used to conversations like this. He sighed. “But it was partly my fault, too," the blond admitted. "I over-reacted, letting my own anger get the best of me, and kept pushing you. I think I was actually hoping for it to become a physical fight.”

Sora laughed slightly at that. “Yeah, I guess neither of us are that great at handling emotions. I forgive you though… um. Think you can forgive me, too? If you can’t, I’d understand...” he looked down at the floor.

Roxas smiled, then left the couch, kneeling by Sora and pulling him out of Riku’s arms and into his own hug. “Of course, you dork. You’re my Other. I’ll always forgive you.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 440, morning;  
446 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Xion**

Sora wiggled slightly where he sat, which was backwards on the (closed) toilet. “How much longer?” he complained.

“Well,” Xion said, carding her fingers through Sora’s hair with the clear latex gloves that had turned almost entirely black. “First we have to get this dye through your hair, then let it sit for half an hour before washing it out.” Dying Sora’s hair had been left up to Xion, as she had the most experience with it—Naminé really liked the effects of highlights in her blonde hair, but she had some social anxiety that made going to a salon difficult for her, so Kairi and Xion volunteered to help. They’d quickly learned that Kairi was horrible at doing such, so the job had fallen to Xion. Therefore, the job of dying Sora’s hair had gone to Xion, too.

“Uggggh why so long?”

“Because otherwise the dye won’t be properly absorbed by the hair,” Xion explained, inwardly sighing. Sora’s attention span was miniscule. “Now, please, sit still, or your face is going to be streaked with black too, and it’ll be there a few days since this dye doesn’t come off with soap. Which is also why you will need to sit right here until it sets, because if you bump into things they’ll be permanently dyed too.”

“Oh, come on, I’m not going to bump into things.”

Xion pursed her lips, choosing not to argue that, even though Sora had a greater chance of carelessly letting it get on something or someone than not. “Regardless, it’s best to sit here, just in case. You can play games on Riku’s GummiPhone while you wait.”

Sora sighed. “Fine. RIIIIIKUUUUU EMERGENCY!” he yelled.

On cue, Riku came running. “What’s wrong, Sora?!”

“Give me your GummiPhone. I’m bored.”

Riku sighed. “Seriously, Sora? You can’t call an emergency for that!”

“But I’m boooored!”

“Ugh, fine.” Riku left the room, presumably to get the phone.

Xion sighed. “You still can’t use it until I’m done getting all the dye through, Sora.”

“Which is taking forever!”

“I have to make sure every bit is covered; if they see brown streaks, they’ll get suspicious!”

“They already are suspicious,” Sora muttered petulantly.

“Then all the more reason to be extra careful,” Xion reasoned. She removed her hands from Sora’s hair and then carefully removed her gloves before wrapping them in a paper towel and tossing them in the trash, careful not to get dye anywhere. “There, I’m done. Now fiddle with your phone for half an hour, then you can wash it out in the shower with warm water. Thoroughly, unless you want dye getting everywhere! Understand?”

Sora nodded. “Yes, Xion.” He sighed, crossing his arms to rest on the back of the toilet, chin resting on them.

Roxas appeared in the doorway, leaning on the frame and crossing his arms. “Okay, you have to learn how to be Vanitas fast, because Mickey just messaged me; they want everyone there asap for a meeting, and he told me to bring Vanitas.”

Sora’s eyes widened and he sat up straight, turning to look at Roxas with a slightly panicked expression. “Everyone?!”

“Hey, watch it!” Xion said, stepping back. “You almost got dye on me!”

“That’s what he says,” Roxas told Sora, both boys ignoring Xion’s comment. 

“But that means Kairi and Naminé will be there too!” Sora declared.

“Well, yes, everyone means everyone.” Roxas sighed. “That’s why we seriously need to work on your attitude…”

Xion gasped. “We’ll need to keep him as far away from Kairi and Naminé as possible,” she realized. “They both have a sixth sense for disguises.”

Riku appeared in the doorway next to Roxas, holding his phone. “Yeah, Kairi recognized me even when I looked like Ansem. They can both read hearts.”

“Fuck,” Sora swore. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Roxas’s eyes lit up. “There! You’re already in character!”

Xion chuckled. Somewhere along the line Sora had developed quite a foul mouth, probably due to Roxas’s influence, and it had apparently developed significantly during the year and change that he’d been a reaper, despite being alone for all that time.

“Wait.” Sora froze. “We forgot about my eyes,” he realized. “Vanitas’s were gold!”

“Not an issue!” Xion said. “See, everyone under Xehanort’s influence had gold eyes. They only ever saw Vanitas while under his influence, so they wouldn’t know his actual eye color! We can say that them being blue is proof that you’re no longer controlled by Xehanort.”

Sora sighed in relief. “Right, that works; good thinking, Xion! …Wait.” Sora frowned again. “What about the unversed? I can’t summon those.”

Riku shook his head. “You won’t have to. They’re manifested based on pain, and physically hurt Vanitas when they’re killed. So we’ll say it’s part of your rehab to avoid summoning them.”

“You’ll have to watch the wings and horns, though,” Roxas pointed out.

At Sora’s confused look, Xion tickled one of the currently-exposed wings, which she regretted immediately after as Sora twitched, almost hitting his head against her again. Thankfully she was good at dodging.

“Oh, right. I keep forgetting about those,” Sora admitted. It was understandable, Xion thought; he hadn’t really needed to hide them from anyone much, as he barely interacted with anyone other than those helping him—and if they did pop out unexpectedly around someone else the person would be on death’s door anyway. “I’ll be more careful,” the brunette promised.

Riku shrugged. “I honestly wouldn’t worry too much. Vanitas was the embodiment of darkness; is it really too far-fetched that he’d end up looking demonic? If they pop out we can just say it’s something he developed as an alternative to summoning the unversed.”

Xion frowned then, realizing someone was missing. “Where’s Lea?”

Roxas answered that. “He just messaged me. He’s going to head over to the meeting right after he finishes up a mark.”

“Can I wash the dye out now?” Sora wondered.

“No!” Xion replied firmly. “I told you, half an hour!”

“Ugh… I’m gonna die from boredom,” Sora lamented.

Xion rolled her eyes as she sat on the edge of the tub, deciding she should monitor Sora just in case. This was going to be a loooooooong half hour!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: Everyone meets 'Vanitas', and then Sora's group gets two more members...


	3. This is How I Disappear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The entourage of light warriors meet "Vanitas". Will everyone buy the ruse?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter, at about 5600 words. I tried to keep all chapters 4-5k words, but this one just couldn't be split further—but I'm sure you won't mind!

**Day 440, afternoon;  
445 Remaining;  
Land of Departure, outside;  
POV Sora**

“I can’t go in there!” Sora whined while hiding his face in Riku’s chest.

Riku sighed. “Sor— _Vanitas_ , we have to. You can’t avoid it.” The two, along with Roxas and Xion, were standing outside the castle at the Land of Departure, where the meeting would be held—there were simply too many keyblade-wielders and associates now to meet at Yen Sid’s office.

“Just say I ran away or something, that the rehab wasn’t working!”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Then they’ll actively hunt you, seeing as you’re supposedly an embodiment of darkness and they wouldn’t want you going rogue.”

Sora sighed; Riku had a point. “Fine.” He grabbed Riku’s hand for comfort, then went to rub his eye with his other hand, just barely remembering that he shouldn’t do that due to the gold contacts—turned out there had been a costume shop near the apartment that sold colored contacts, and the group figured there would be less questions of identity if the eyes weren't blue. They didn’t look super realistic upon close examination, but theoretically no one would get close enough to him to tell.

“Hold up.” Roxas snatched Sora’s hand from Riku’s. “Vanitas would not be holding Riku’s hand. Or anyone’s.” He moved his hand to Sora’s upper arm. “You are going to angrily complain while I lead you into the meeting room like this, got it?”

“Remember, Xion will go in first, to explain the situation,” Riku told Sora. “We’ll then lead you in, with you acting very grumpy, clearly not wanting to be there, and will sit far away from Kairi, Naminé, and Ven, who you will make sure to call Ventus. Roxas and I will flank you, so we’ll appear to be keeping you in line. Only negative emotions should appear to come easily, and if you do smile at something, make it look pained, like the last thing you want to do is smile, pretending you’re trying to form positive emotions but are struggling.”

"Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Sora grumbled, crossing his arms. They’d told him that so many times already; he wasn’t that forgetful!

“Perfect!” Xion chimed in, apparently assuming Sora was already acting. “Just like that. Now, let’s go!”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 440, afternoon;  
445 Remaining;  
Land of Departure, conference room;  
POV Roxas**

Sora crossed his arms and tapped his foot as he waited outside the conference room with Roxas and Riku. “How long is she going to take?” he hissed.

Roxas chuckled. “Already in character, huh?”

Sora gave him a glare and a scowl in return. Roxas then realized that Sora might in fact not actually be acting at the moment; the whole ‘you need to show your emotions’ thing was revealing a side of Sora few had seen before. Roxas had known the emotions had been there, of course, as he’d been in Sora’s heart, but it was strange to see them actually expressed rather than suppressed. Riku seemed unphased by it though, so maybe he had seen it when they were younger or something.

The door slowly opened a crack, revealing Xion. “You can bring him in now,” she whispered. 

Roxas, hand now on Sora’s upper arm (Riku had the other), felt the brunette—no, noirette—tense slightly as they practically forced Sora inside, again not sure if he was acting or not. Once they were inside, Sora pushed the two away and leaned back on the wall, scowling. Roxas and Riku stood on either side of him, opting not to try to force him into a seat, while Xion sat down.

Like most the rooms in the Land of Departure’s castle, the meeting room itself was bright and airy, large windows lining one wall to let bright light in. The round table they sat around was made of some sort of light-colored wood, and the chairs were of an identical material, tall and spindly with intricately carved backs. Roxas was actually glad they were standing once he saw those—they looked highly uncomfortable, probably the type of thing more meant for show than actual use.

Roxas inwardly sighed in relief as he saw the placement of the people around the table. On the far side, closest to the windows, sat Naminé, Kairi, and Ventus, the three most likely to recognize their ruse. Going clockwise from them, there was Yen Sid, Donald, Goofy, Lea, three empty seats for the three standing—positioned right in front of them, closest to the door, which Roxas thought was a poor strategic choice as it increased ease of escape—Xion, Mickey, Aqua, and Terra. Roxas noticed that Lea and Xion were flanking the empty seats, which would create a buffer if the three chose to sit.

Which apparently they were being forced to, from the looks that Yen Sid, Mickey, and Aqua were giving them. Roxas sighed, grabbed Sora’s arm, and pulled him into the center of the three chairs, Riku and Roxas again flanking him on the left and right respectively as they sat. Roxas had been correct about the seats’ level of comfort.

A very awkward and tense silence hovered over the room for nearly a minute before Yen Sid spoke. “Explain,” he said simply, voice carefully reflecting no emotion, although he seemed to be subtly eyeing Sora with suspicion—whether it was towards the noirette’s true identity or ‘Vanitas’s’ trustworthiness Roxas wasn’t certain. Roxas wouldn’t put it past the wizard to recognize who it actually was, but not say so in order to teach the other young keyblade wielders a lesson in trusting people or some convoluted thing like that, which he’d started to do recently. ‘It’s good to learn from your failures,’ he’d said, or some mantra like that. Or, maybe it was just amusing to him watching them mess up at things; Roxas sure didn’t know. The guy was impossible to read.

Riku looked over at Roxas, who looked at Sora, who was scowling and looking down at the table. Roxas turned to Yen Sid and asked, “I thought Xion explained?”

Aqua replied to that, voice bitter. “All she said was that a few weeks ago Vanitas appeared, and for some unfathomable reason you decided to talk to him rather than just take him out right there. That you allegedly convinced him he could be rehabilitated, and then you convinced Riku, Lea, and Xion to help! What the hell are you thinking?”

Riku answered this, voice calm, hands folded gently on the table—Roxas suspected he was trying not to hold Sora’s, whose arms were crossed flat on the table with his chin resting on it, glaring at Aqua—as he gave the speech he’d prepared. “The four of us were all your enemies once, too: Roxas, Xion and Lea were in the Organization, and I was literally consumed by the darkness and possessed by Xehanort’s heartless. We’re not the only ones who were once enemies, either: Terra was in the same situation as me, and Naminé was also involved with the Organization. Even you, Aqua, were consumed by the darkness for a while. More of us here were enemies of the light at one point or another; we’re only here because Sora had faith in us, because he believed that we could return to the side of good. Why shouldn’t we give Vanitas the same chance? I’m positive it’s what Sora would want.”

The group sat in silence for a bit, contemplating the words. The hope was that the emotional appeal of it being what Sora wanted would sway them if the plea to empathy didn't.

Surprisingly Ventus was the one to break the silence. “I agree,” he decided. “Sora would want it.”

“Ven…” Aqua trailed off, looking at him in surprise.

“Me too,” Terra added. “Riku makes a good point; almost all of us here were manipulated and used by Xehanort. Vanitas is no different on that point. Let him try to prove himself too.”

“Well if you all think it’s a good idea, I’ll believe in him, too,” Mickey said, sounding happier than the occasion called for. Or, maybe it was just his squeaky voice that made him come across that way. Roxas didn't know him well enough to tell.

“If Mickey thinks it’s okay, I do too!” Goofy pitched in predictably, also sounding cheery.

“I don’t know,” Donald grumbled, glaring at Sora. Sora, sitting up properly now, glared back just as forcefully.

“But it’s what Sora would want,” Goofy pointed out.

Donald scoffed. “Sora would try to rehabilitate Xehanort if he could.”

Roxas saw Riku try to withhold a chuckle and Roxas gave him a knowing smile. Sora, who was trying to turn a blush into an angry look again, had indeed tried to convince multiple renditions of Xehanort to return to the light. In fact, pretty much every time he had encountered someone dark Sora tried coaxing them to the light, up until he made the demon deal—now he just killed them.

Yen Sid looked around the room. “I must admit, I too am skeptical,” he said stoically. “But if this is what everyone else wishes, I will not try to stop you.”

Overall the conversation was going much better than Roxas expected. No one mentioned how ‘Vanitas’ had actually said nothing yet, and for the most part were agreeable to their so-called plan to rehabilitate him. Only two people hadn’t spoken yet, at least not to the group as a whole: Naminé and Kairi, who were involved in a whispered conversation of their own. Which wasn’t so unusual; the two rarely seemed to make a decision alone anymore. They acted more like close-knit twins than anything, which Roxas supposed they kinda were.

“Are you all insane!?” Donald squawked, standing up and waving his staff towards Sora. “He’s literally constructed of pure darkness, not controlled by it!”

“But it’s what Sora would want,” Roxas pointed out.

“You don’t know what Sora would want! He’s not here!” 

“And if he were, he would want Vanitas to be given a chance,” Roxas practically growled, ready to strangle the duck.

“Sora tried to make a heartless into a pet once!”

Most of the table looked at Donald with varying degrees of confusion.

Sora opened his mouth, but Riku covered it before he could say anything.

“Aww, Donald, it was just one of those friendly little mushroom ones,” Goofy said casually. “You found it cute, too.”

“How is this even relevant to the topic at hand?” Xion asked in exasperation.

“It shows that Sora doesn’t have any limits. He can’t properly judge who can be saved and who can’t," Donald loudly warbled.

“Oh, and you can!?” Came a growl, and Roxas realized that Sora was now standing, wings and horns visible. Meaning he was not acting right now. Fuck.

“Vanitas!” Riku said, putting a hand on his shoulder, trying to pull him back down. Sora wasn’t having it, and shoved him off.

“Don’t touch me,” Sora growled at Riku; okay, good, he was acting again. At least on that part; Sora would never tell Riku not to touch him.

Roxas looked around, realizing quite a few had their keyblades out. Sora held up a hand as though about to summon his, and Roxas grabbed Sora’s wrist tightly, causing Sora to let out a shout of pain. “What the fuck, Roxas?!” Sora growled, glaring at him with fangs bared. Roxas gulped; it reminded him of the feral look Sora gave him before changing into that rage-form thing.

Riku realized the issue too, and stood up, whispering something into Sora’s ear and placing a hand on his shoulder again, probably reminding him about the fact that he did not have Vanitas’s keyblade so that’d give him away. Sora paled slightly before regaining his angry composure and slowly allowing Riku’s hand to push him back down to sitting. Slowly those with weapons out dismissed them and sat back down too, except Donald.

“See? He’s volatile!” Donald squawked. Roxas clenched his teeth. Read the room, duck! Did he want a physical altercation?!

“Ummm. What’s with the wings and horns?” Ventus asked, ignoring the duck.

Sora bit his lip, then let out a snort as he maintained a grumpy expression while explaining. “It’s instead of the unversed. I’ve been working on holding them in. But apparently my body still wants to manifest something when I’m extra emotional, so I got wings and horns, yay.” He rolled his eyes, then sighed grumpily. “Guess it’s not so bad though. At least they don’t hurt like the unversed did.”

“The unversed hurt?” Ventus asked in surprise.

Sora nodded. “Yeah. When they split off it hurt slightly, and when someone destroyed one it hurt a lot. Xehanort told me returning to you would stop the pain, then said that until then since they were going to be made anyway, might as well use them, and that pain was what it meant to be alive anyway so I just had to endure it. Although in retrospect he caused or encouraged most of the painful emotions that created the unversed in the first place...” Roxas was unsure how Sora knew all that. Or had he made that up? It didn’t sound made up. And it made a lot of sense.

Ventus looked incredibly sad at that information. “Xehanort was a master at manipulating emotions and coaxing out inner darkness through that,” he said. “It’s how he nearly got Sora during that exam, too. If he could draw that much darkness out of Sora, then it’s no wonder he got to you.”

Roxas tried not to cringe as he saw Sora briefly freeze and a hurt expression flash across his face before he regained his moody composure; Roxas really hoped no one else had caught the slip. The near fall to darkness was still a raw subject for Sora, especially as he only survived because Ventus protected him—of course, only those who were in his heart and Riku knew that latter bit. 

Sora scoffed and waved a hand. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” he said dismissively. “The big hero of light has plenty of darkness too, obviously I had no hope.”

Ventus visibly cringed at that, probably realizing how what he said had come across, even if it had been unintentional.

Roxas glanced to the left of Ventus, observing the two girls who hadn’t said anything yet. He wondered what Kairi and Naminé were thinking; obviously they’d be willing to give Sora—er, Vanitas—a chance, but they were acting suspicious. They weren’t thinking it wasn’t Vanitas, were they? Even though everyone else seemed fooled? Roxas caught Riku’s eye and then moved his eyes towards the girls without moving his head quickly before looking back. Riku nodded in understanding. They would have to be careful that the girls didn’t get anywhere close to Sora.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 440, evening;  
444 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Kairi**

Kairi took a deep breath, standing outside the door. “You’re sure this is where they are?” she whispered to Naminé. It had only been a few hours since the meeting.

The blonde-haired girl nodded at the redhead, locking eyes with her. “Positive.”

Kairi nodded, steeling herself. There was no predicting how this would go. She rapped on the door.

Half a minute later, it opened as someone sighed and said “Finally! We were starting to get—” Lea froze, cutting off his sentence as he stared at the two girls in complete shock, door wide open. Clearly he had been expecting someone else.

Kairi glanced behind him, seeing two boys on a decaying couch. One was Riku, who was looking at the two girls in complete shock, and the other was a black-haired boy who was curled up on the other’s lap holding a GummiPhone. Kairi’s conclusion had been correct: that was definitely not Vanitas, as they wanted everyone to believe; the actual denizen of darkness would never be caught dead in Riku’s lap, at least not while that content and with such a calm smile on his face.

The boy on Riku’s lap noticed the awkward silence and Riku’s shift in gaze; as he turned towards the girls, he turned rock still and his eyes widened like a deer in the headlights. Riku prodded him and said something quietly, and the boy slid off his lap slowly to sit next to Riku on the couch, still staring at Kairi, clearly knowing he’d been caught red-handed in something he couldn’t get out of.

“Fuck,” came a voice from behind her, and Kairi turned to see Roxas, whose hair was haggard and… Kairi’s eyes widened as Roxas pushed past her and Naminé.

The boy who had been pretending to be Vanitas saw Roxas; he seemed to immediately forget about Kairi and Naminé to jump up and confront the blond. “What the fuck, Roxas?” he yelled. “Seriously? Do you want to be caught again?! You know water and aero spells—use them!”

Roxas scoffed bitterly. “Yeah, well, didn’t exactly have time for that!” he explained as he removed what appeared to be a gun from his pocket and tossed it on the couch before removing his jacket, which followed it. “Guy had a fucking kid in the house! You’re supposed to inform us of things like that! He called the fucking cops!”

“Then at least wipe it off with your sleeve or something! You can’t be walking around with blood on your face! This may be a shitty apartment with a shitty landlord who doesn’t give a crap if tenants are active criminals or not, but there are still other neighbors around! If they get suspicious and call the cops, we’re all screwed!” The black-haired boy now had little bat-like wings and horns poking out from his hair. 

“Do you think I don’t know that?! I didn’t have time to stop! The mark was in this city, if you don’t remember! I couldn’t let the kid get a look at my face, and obviously him seeing me use magic—”

Kairi wasn’t sure how to process what was happening. The argument sunk into the background as she looked around the studio apartment, which was the same one she’d seen during the call a few weeks prior and still looked like something out of a true crime show. It also was a total wreck: slash marks decorated the walls that weren’t covered by corkboards filled with maps, photos, and push-pins with strings; there were what appeared to be torn phone books on a table, and even more disturbing was a shelf full of what appeared to be unorganized weapons and jars of liquids and powders that Kairi suspected were not benign. A black-haired girl sat at a table, eating out of a square paper container with chopsticks, watching the entire thing with a wary expression as Lea plopped down in a chair next to her.

“Xion!” Naminé gasped, also noticing the girl.

“Uh. Hi,” Xion said sheepishly.

This brought the arguing boys’ attention back to the two girls. Riku stood, then put a hand on not-Vanitas’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear. The boy blushed, and the wings and horns vanished.

Kairi, suddenly angry, had a bold idea that she knew would fully confirm her theory about who they were calling ‘Vanitas’. Kairi leapt at the boy, drawing her keyblade and going for a simple downward strike.

The boy’s eyes widened, and he instinctively summoned his own keyblade to block it. The Kingdom Key—in other words, Sora’s keyblade. “I knew it,” Kairi said fiercely. She grinned in victory as she looked Sora in the eyes, their keyblades still locked together. Sora looked somewhat panicked; normally Kairi would try comforting him in such a state, but she was too angry to care. “Sora. You better have a good explanation for all this.”

Suddenly, Naminé’s hands were on Kairi's wrists, and Riku’s were on Sora’s; they gently pried the two apart. Kairi stepped back to stand next to Naminé as she and Sora dismissed their keyblades. Sora turned and buried his face in Riku’s chest, leaning into him and clutching the silverette’s shirt—essentially, trying to run from his problems, as usual.

Lea sighed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms languidly as he looked over at the girls. “I suppose you two want some answers, huh?”

“That would be nice, yes,” Kairi demanded, or tried to demand. Her voice was slightly faint from the encounter, but she still managed to glare threateningly at the black-haired Sora, whom Riku had managed to turn around and get standing on his own instead of leaning into Riku.

Sora cringed and rubbed the back of his head with his hand as he looked down, slightly blushing, avoiding her glare. A gesture Kairi was very familiar with. Yup, definitely Sora.

Kairi, in another surge of anger, stomped over to the boy and grabbed him by the collar, forcing him to meet her eyes. “Sora,” Kairi said, voice caked with anger and upset. “Tell me what is going on, right now. Why are you hiding from everyone?! What are you all up to?!”

Sora gave Kairi a glare in return, which slightly abated her anger to make way for surprise. He’d never glared at her like that before. “Okay, fine,” he spat, pushing Kairi away. She staggered slightly, nearly falling, but caught herself; Sora had never done that before, either. “In short: I gotta kill a shit ton of people and have a time limit. That’s why I was hiding from everyone, until these four found me.”

“We’re helping him complete the mission,” Xion added, as though that further explained what Sora had just said.

Lea raised an eyebrow at Sora. “Uh, dedication to character is nice, but you’re not Vanitas right now. Might want to have some tact.”

“I know that!” Sora snapped at the red-haired man. Then he took a deep breath. “Sorry. Just… didn’t expect you here,” Sora admitted as he turned back towards Kairi, seeming calmer though still somewhat tense. “Thought it’d take you a bit longer to figure out that I was around. Everyone else seemed to buy the lie.”

Kairi felt extremely hurt; Sora truly thought she wouldn’t recognize his heart? She and Naminé? Kairi dismissed the thought, slightly shifting the line of conversation. She wanted answers; crying wouldn't get her that. “But why were you hiding in the first place?” she implored. “Why hide from me? We thought you were trapped somewhere, or worse, especially since you faded away right after telling me I shouldn’t look for you!” Then Kairi felt confused. “Wait, if you’re safe, why… how..?”

Sora actually laughed a little at that, to Kairi’s surprise. “You mean, like this?” Kairi’s eyes grew wide as Sora’s image faded right before her.

“S-sora?!” Kairi called, beginning to panic; that memory was still raw, even after a year…

Laughing sounded from directly behind her, and Kairi’s heart skipped a beat. She swerved around to find Sora there. “You- you-!” Kairi wanted to use a bad word that she knew she shouldn’t use.

Sora raised an eyebrow. “I think ‘asshole’ is the word you’re looking for.” He sounded way too smug about it. 

Kairi noticed Riku roll his eyes in the background as Lea muttered something about Sora being overdramatic which Xion delicately laughed at.

Kairi bristled. “Yeah, that! So you’ve been around the whole time, haven’t you? Just hiding from us?! Did you not think we’d look for you? Did you not think we’d mourn? We were all a wreck! You should have seen Riku—he had to be restrained that first week so he didn’t do something reckless!” Kairi knew it was a low blow, but that’s what she had been aiming for. She’d have to apologize to Riku later. 

Sora cringed as he slinked back over to said silverette, who ruffled his hair affectionately, probably to assure Sora he was forgiven. “Er. Well. I wanted to finish things before returning…” Sora said sheepishly.

“Finish what?”

Sora bit his lip, seeming unsure of what to say, so turned away and didn’t say anything, leaning into Riku's side, who immediately put his arm around the brunette’s—or rather, noirette’s—shoulders to pull him closer. Kairi vaguely wondered for the ten-thousandth time if there was something more-than-friends between the two, but they always insisted there wasn’t.

Naminé spoke up next. “Why are you killing people, Sora?” she asked, voice quiet but neutral. “No… why are all five of you killing people?”

Sora sighed and looked down, shoulders slumped; Kairi couldn’t see his face, but recognized the posture as something Sora did when he felt guilty. “I need to kill a thousand evil people within 666 days, or all of you will die.”

Kairi looked at Sora in complete disbelief. Had she heard right? “What?” was all she could manage; all anger had left her, leaving only a stillness of shock and confusion.

Sora looked up, and there was the glare again. “You heard me. I have 666 days to kill a thousand people or you and the others die. There’s just under eight months left and still around 450 to go; I was way behind schedule. So they’re helping me.”

“Helping you… murder people.”

“Well, we prefer the term ‘assassinate’, but technically, yeah.” Sora seemed more confident now, and had a slightly cocky grin, to Kairi’s surprise. How could he be treating this so lightly? Then again, after killing hundreds of people in barely more than a year, maybe he had adjusted to it… to killing… to the point that he had become comfortable with it.

Kairi frowned. “You said they’re evil people?” She wasn’t sure how much more okay that made it, but… if they were all bad people anyway… and it wasn’t like they hadn’t killed bad people before... 

Sora nodded. “Yeah. We have a list. But you know, technically by killing them, we’re saving people; they’re things like serial killers, child predators, chronic abusers, and other horrible things. So it’s a bit like vigilistism.”

“Vigilantism,” Riku corrected. Kairi smiled briefly at that; Riku correcting Sora’s vocabulary was something familiar in this whole mess of strangeness.

“So, why do you have to do this?” Kairi asked, somewhat afraid of the answer. It started fourteen months prior. That was when the Keyblade Graveyard battle had been fought. When she had been killed and then Sora somehow rescued her.

When Sora simply bit his lip and refused to answer, Roxas did so for him. “Because he was a complete idiot and made a deal with some death goddess without reading the fine print. If he doesn’t do this, we all die. Everyone Sora saved during that battle, not just you—apparently we lost the battle the first time around, and Sora did some fancy time travel thing to save us… wait, did you know?” Roxas was now staring at Naminé; looking over, Kairi realized she was slightly pale, but not at all surprised about the information. Yes, she had known.

“I… I had a hand in that first time,” the blonde girl admitted. “I’m the reason Terra’s lingering will showed up; I constructed it from his memories. It didn’t appear the first time.” Then she looked confused. “But that wasn’t related to saving Kairi the second time, so why—”

“Because, like I said,” Roxas interrupted, “Sora’s an idiot who doesn’t read the fine print. He basically just heard ‘Kairi can be saved’ and agreed to whatever.”

“Hey!” Sora bristled. He had the weird wings and horns again. “That wasn’t how it happened!”

Roxas rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Sure it wasn’t,” he said sarcastically.

Kairi’s eyes widened in horror. “Wait,” she said quietly, and all eyes turned to her. “Are you saying that… in order to save me…” Kairi’s head spun. When Sora had said he’d do anything for his friends, Kairi thought there would be some limits at least! He really went as far as mass murder? Seriously? “You shouldn’t have done that,” Kairi decided. “You should have… next time, you need to let it go if the only way to save me is to do something horrible.”

Sora’s face fell. “Kairi, I can’t… you’re too important. I had to do it. If I had to make a choice like that again, I’d still choose to.”

“Even though it’s turned your friends into killers, too?” Kairi whispered.

“Oh, we don’t mind!” Xion piped up. “It’s actually rather fun!” She giggled as Lea hit her arm lightly and hissed at her to be quiet. Kairi was mildly disturbed by that, but decided not to comment.

The room stilled, full of awkward silence from almost everyone there, waiting for a response which Sora seemed to not want to give—most likely because the answer would be ‘yes’. Kairi bit her lip as she thought to herself. Sora’s recklessness and dubious morality aside, it was partly her fault for all this, wasn’t it? If she hadn’t gotten killed, Sora wouldn’t have had to make that deal. Heck, it went back further than that, to when they’d shared that darned fruit and promised to do whatever they could to protect each other. If she’d realized that Sora literally had meant he’d do anything, including become a serial killer, she would have worded it differently. And if this thing didn’t get resolved, they all were going to die, right? So there really was no choice.

Kairi broke the silence. “I’ll help, too,” she said with determination.

There was a pause, and then “What?!” came the response from all the boys there.

“I’ll help too,” Kairi repeated. “Maybe… maybe not with the actual killing, but from the looks of it, you need people here doing other things too, right? Like finding addresses, judging by all those phone books.”

“Kairi…” Sora began, though he didn't seem to know how to continue.

“It’s non-negotiable,” Kairi insisted. “I’m helping, end-of-story.” Her mind was made up.

“I’ll help too,” Naminé chimed in, voice delicate yet no less determined.

Sora sighed, then turned his head to look at Riku, who still had his arm around Sora’s shoulder. “What do you think?”

Riku raised an eyebrow. “It’s really up to you, Sora… but I don’t think they’re going to be swayed.” He chucked. “Actually, if we didn’t allow them, I’m sure they’d find a way to steal the list and start helping on their own.”

Kairi blushed. Honestly, that had been what she was thinking. “So, you’ll let us help, then?”

Sora sighed, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess you can help. But! We still can’t let the others know!”

Kairi nodded in understanding. The rest of their friends would probably be much less willing to help, preferring to find a way out of it, probably by defeating the goddess, and from the sound of it that wasn’t possible. Honestly Kairi was surprised they were even allowed to help Sora; either the goddess didn’t know, which Kairi thought unlikely, or she was happy that Sora was turning his friends into killers. As it was a death goddess they were dealing with, Kairi would bet good money it was the latter.

Naminé smiled gently. “I can use my abilities to help find people if I can talk to those who know them," she offered. "Plus, I can do damage control if someone does see.” Kairi was slightly surprised at the latter bit; Naminé really hated using her ability to alter memories.

Sora sighed again. “Okay. I'm reluctant about asking you to do that, but I have a feeling that's non-negotiable too. Do you two have any more questions?”

Kairi did have one more question. “So… what’s with the wings and horns?”

Sora felt his head, realizing they were still there. “Uh… I’m actually a subset of demon called a reaper. Or partly one? I dunno if it’s forever or just until I’m done with the list. I can usually hide the wings and horns, but they like to appear accidentally when I get emotional. They’re just aesthetic though… but the fangs, which are permanently there, can be useful! I also don’t need sleep and can turn invisible, and have night vision. But that’s basically it unfortunately. Or not unfortunately? I dunno. What are other traits demons typically have? I still have to eat and stuff, and seem otherwise completely human…”

“You’re rambling,” Riku pointed out, and Sora blushed. Kairi laughed at that; Sora tended to do that when nervous.

“So, the Hero of Light is a demon now?” Kairi teased. “Bit ironic, huh?” She was pleased to see that made Sora blush more as the others all laughed.

Sora turned to face Riku, who was laughing as well. “Not you too!”

Riku ruffled Sora’s hair affectionately. “It’s true though,” he said with a smile. “Of everyone here, Kairi aside, you’re the last person anyone would expect to become a demon.”

“Oh! Almost forgot,” Sora said, turning back to the girls. “How were you able to tell so easily it was me? None of the others caught on… wait, none of the others caught on, did they?” He looked a little panicked.

Naminé looked at the boy unamused. “Sora, I’m literally connected to your heart and memories. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t be able to tell it was you?”

Sora blushed. “Ah, well, I thought if I stayed far enough away… But what about you, Kairi?”

Kairi shook her head and sighed in exasperation. “Sora, firstly, I’m a Princess of Heart. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t notice that the supposedly all-dark ‘Vanitas’ had a brighter light than most there, even with the extra darkness that's presumably a demon trait? And secondly… well, you’re my best friend, Sora, since we were kids. I know you just as well as Riku and the people who were in your heart. Hell, I was in your heart for a while, too.”

“Wait, speaking of people from his heart,” Lea suddenly pitched in, “Why didn’t Ven notice? Or did he? He was so entwined with Sora’s heart that Roxas took his looks. And Vanitas literally was split from him. You’d think he’d be able to tell instantly.”

Naminé shrugged in response. “Honestly, I’m not sure how he didn’t see it either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: A certain blond boy has a realization, and the Masters fear a new threat may be arising when they are alerted to an uptick in deaths with unidentifiable or suspicious causes that spans across multiple worlds.
> 
> Expect it Monday 12/7 or Tuesday 12/8! (Also, Sunday 12/6 my other WIP will have a chapter posted, for those of you waiting for that!)


	4. To the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ventus has a realization.  
> Sora has a tail.  
> The Masters get suspicious.  
> Someone new joins the group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm posting this a day early! I forgot I took Fridays off this entire month (personal time at my workplace has to be used before the year ends), so I had more time to work on my stories than expected!
> 
> It's also longer than expected, because I added stuff in. So it's around 5600 words, but I'm sure you won't complain.
> 
> Special thank you to Ima Nonyme for the scene idea for introducing Sora's tail! Originally it got revealed later on in the story in a different way, but I like this better. :)

**Day 440, night;  
444 Remaining;  
Land of Departure, bedroom;  
POV Ventus**

Ventus frowned at the ceiling as he lay in bed. He tried to fall asleep, but just couldn’t stop thinking about the meeting from earlier that day. Something was off. That had looked like Vanitas, and acted like him, but something didn’t feel right. Was he in a replica body maybe? But where would he have gotten one? And through his reactions, there had occasionally been glimpses of others, flashes of surprise or embarrassment before returning quickly to a darker demeanor. Was that really Vanitas? He’d appeared completely shocked for a moment when Ventus had mentioned the Mark of Mastery exam, maybe even traumatized, but Vanitas shouldn’t have reacted at all over that. There was also the lack of unversed—could Vanitas really let them go that easily? But he did have those weird wings and horns so maybe changing them to that was possible. Darkness worked in weird ways after all. But… but that didn’t feel like Vanitas’s darkness, more like…

Ventus gasped as he sat up in bed, eyes wide.

“Ventus? What’s wrong?” asked Chirithy worriedly, hopping off of Ventus’s desk and to the bed.

“That was Sora,” Ventus said confidently, barely believing it but knowing it was true.

“What was Sora?”

“At the meeting today! Claiming to be Vanitas!” Ventus felt himself starting to panic. “I don’t know what he did to get wings and horns, and he was acting really edgy like Vanitas, but I’m sure that was Sora.”

“Well, then, what do you want to do about it?” Chirithy wondered. “Confront him? He’s been with Riku and Roxas, right? They probably know it’s Sora; you can ask them.”

Ventus took a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s true. But, I'm not going to confront any of them; if Sora wants to keep it a secret, I'll respect that …It kinda hurts that he wouldn’t tell me though.”

“Well, I’m sure he has his reasons,” Chirithy reasoned.

“Yeah…” Ventus sighed. Maybe Sora would tell him soon.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 455, afternoon;  
407 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Sora**

It had been nearly three months since Sora had been found by his friends, and two weeks since Naminé and Kairi joined. The two girls ended up being excellent at running the base of operations. Kairi had always been good at researching things, as evidenced by her excellent grades in school, but as it turned out those skills proved useful outside of school too; Naminé seemed to have inherited that. Sora was impressed; maybe he should have paid more attention in school, because then he’d have gone through the list much faster and might not have had to involve his friends in this fiasco. Or rather, finished earlier and thus avoided them forcing help upon him. Between Kairi’s excellent ability to find information on the targets, and Naminé’s ability to search the memories of those who knew them, there were no delays where everyone had to search together, as there had been on occasion before. Between that and now having four people in the field, their murder rate quickly rose.

“We’ll be finished a month early at this rate!” Xion said excitedly as she reviewed the numbers. “Maybe sooner!”

Sora leaned forwards in his chair, placing an elbow on a small plastic collapsible meeting table, which was miraculously mostly clear of things unlike every other horizontal surface in the room. They’d recently set it up in the apartment along with a set of cheap foldable chairs. Sora rested his chin in his hand. His wings and horns were out—he had grown quite fond of them, and since everyone here knew about them he had no reason to hide them when in the apartment. Other than Kairi, Naminé, and Xion, Riku was currently at their base, sitting at the table like the others, directly across from Sora; he was staring at Sora with a starstruck expression, clearly not paying attention to the conversation.

“Something on my face?” Sora asked, giving the silverette what he hoped was a coy smile.

Riku’s face turned bright red as he stammered out, “Um. It’s… you… t-tail…”

Sora blinked, then twisted around to see that yes, he had a long tail with a lanceolate end tipped in a sharp needle-like spine; it somewhat resembled a scorpion’s tail in that way, accentuated more so by how it was currently curved upwards with the tip hovering above his head, although instead of chitin and segmented it was smooth skin the same color of jet black as his wings. Sora swished it slightly to confirm that he could move it much like a cat’s tail. “Huh. That’s new.”

“It’s adorable…” Riku practically cooed, a dreamy look in his eyes.

Kairi chuckled. “Okay, loverboy, we get it, you find that hot.”

Riku blushed vigorously. “N-no!” he defended. “I just never saw it before! It’s cute. Tails are cute.”

“You find me cute, Riku?” Sora asked, aiming for sounding innocent, resuming his earlier position and swishing the tail a little, watching in amusement as Riku’s eyes followed it. He was well aware of Riku’s humongous crush—well, probably more than crush—and just wanted the silverette to admit it already. Or, realize it? Was Riku even aware? Everyone else certainly was, including Sora.

Riku looked at Sora, wide-eyed. It seemed he didn’t want to actually say it aloud, but he couldn’t deny the truth.

Xion giggled. “Get a room, you two.”

“There’s only one room in here,” Sora commented offhandedly, resisting the urge to blush and succeeding whereas Riku continuously failed to hide his. “Studio apartment, remember?”

The door opened, and everyone looked towards it but Sora—his enhanced demon hearing had warned him of Lea and Roxas’s approach, as they had been chatting as they walked down the hallway. Maybe even flirting, but their dynamic was difficult to place. If it was flirting chances were neither boy was actually aware of it; they seemed more oblivious of their clear attraction to each other than Riku was to Sora’s, and Sora had tried making it painfully obvious. At this rate he'd have to tackle Riku and shove his tongue down the silverette's throat to get him to realize.

What Sora didn’t expect was his tail being pulled. Sora let out a yelp—well, more of a very embarrassing squeak—and then swerved around to find Roxas holding his tail.

“Since when do you have this thing?” Roxas asked, grinning as he gave it another tug.

“Stop that!” Sora complained.

Instead, Roxas used his other hand to tickle Sora’s wings.

“Roxas!” Sora shouted, wiggling a little.

Xion giggled and reached over to tickle the other wing.

“Hey! Come on, not again!”

“Again?” Naminé asked.

“Yeah, you all got to tickle them before?” Kairi chimed in. “That’s not fair!”

Naminé nodded. “Yes, I agree, that isn’t fair.”

Xion backed away. “Then get over here before he escapes.”

“Yeah, I’ll hold him down,” Roxas offered.

“Guys…” Sora grumbled meekly, resigned to his fate. He could fight, but he didn’t want to hurt anyone, which he’d have to if he tried escaping with them all teamed up on him.

“Hey, is the tail ticklish too?” Lea wondered. 

“Ooh, let’s find out!” Roxas decided. He stroked down it, and Sora squirmed, letting out a small squeal. Yup, that was ticklish!

“I want to tickle the tail!” Riku announced, jumping up and darting around the table; he took the bottom half while Roxas kept the top.

“Noooooo…” Sora complained, flopping his head down on the table, trembling and feeling his face heat up as the group tickled him mercilessly. He shivered as Riku's hand got dangerously close to the base of the tail… Fuck. If it were anyone else it'd be fine, but Riku? Sora's libido was not ready for that. Sora prayed to whatever god would listen to a demon that he didn't get an erection from this… although maybe later, if alone with Riku… No! He had to stop thinking about that right now!

Finally the group stopped, and Sora laid where he was, feeling like play-dough but thankfully erectionless. He unintentionally let out an indistinct whine.

"You okay?" Riku asked, putting his hand on Sora's back, right between the wings… Which appeared to be extra sensitive too. 

"You ask that now?" Sora mumbled, well aware he was instinctually leaning into the touch but not having the energy to stop himself. At this rate, Sora was going to jump Riku with wanton abandon if he didn't get something to distract him soon.

Thankfully a distraction came just as Riku began absentmindedly stroking Sora's wings, in the form of Xion taking out some alcohol and other intoxicating substances she'd clearly stolen from some marks and declaring that they needed to celebrate their progress.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 482, morning;  
345 Remaining;  
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Riku**

Riku sat at a meeting table that had been set up in Yen Sid’s study with the wizard, Mickey, Aqua, and Terra—in other words, all the current keyblade masters. Donald and Goofy were also there. The table had adjusted its size to be perfectly appropriate for the group, and a floating teapot was busy serving them all tea. Riku wondered why this meeting had been called; he had a slightly uneasy feeling.

“Riku,” Yen Sid began. “How is Vanitas doing?”

“Oh, pretty good, actually,” Riku said. “Naminé gave him a book on techniques for anger management and self-control, and he actually read it and seems to be making an effort, so, I’d say that’s progress.”

“Someone is still watching him at all times though, right?” Mickey double-checked.

“Of course,” Riku easily lied. It had been one of the things the other Masters had made the group ‘rehabilitating’ ‘Vanitas’ promise. 

Yen Sid rested his elbows on the table and teepeed his fingers. “Hmm. Then we very well may have a new threat arising.”

“What do you mean?” Aqua asked.

Mickey answered, “Well, over the past four months there has been a significant uptick in cases of deaths with no identifiable cause, as well as deaths within sealed areas.”

“How is this relevant to us?” Terra asked. “Shouldn’t the police handle such a thing?”

Mickey shook his head. “This is different. We investigated a little more, and discovered that this is across multiple worlds, not just one.”

“Do you think someone is hopping worlds to kill?” Aqua asked.

“Exactly.”

Riku’s heart raced. Shit. Shit shit shit. Their group had aroused suspicion. He did his best to remain calm among the budding panic. “How do you know for sure?” he wondered, hoping he sounded more curious than fishing for something they needed to fix.

“Well, a few things,” Mickey explained. “Firstly, some were found to have traces of magic—in worlds that don’t normally have such. However, sometimes anomalies arise, so that’s not always a red flag. The real kicker is that on top of it, most those with allegedly unidentifiable causes were simply due to the fact that the culprit used weapons or substances that are not of that world. For example, one was a clear bullet wound in a world that’s only advanced up to crossbows—in other words, these murders would be impossible unless someone were hopping worlds.”

“But how? GummiShip?” Terra wondered.

“Not necessarily,” Mickey said, “Very few people actually have those at the moment. We know everyone with one registered. It’s much more likely they’re using a more discreet method.”

“Like dark corridors?” Riku suggested, trying to stay calm. “Is that why you asked about Vanitas? You thought he could be behind it?” 

“That is what we initially thought,” Yen Sid acknowledged. Riku resisted an urge to laugh at that. Oh, they had no idea how right they were—except it was Sora pretending to be Vanitas, and he had lots of help.

“The other possibility would be using a keyblade glider,” Aqua mused. “But I’m certain all the people who actually have those are on our side.”

“There are other ways too!” Donald added in. He then said to Mickey, “Like that star shard you once had!” 

Mickey shook his head. “That was… unique. There’s no chance they have that.” He turned to Yen Sid. “Is there?”

Yen Sid shook his head. “I did inventory of the artifact room a week ago. The shard is still there.”

“Do you have any other information?” Riku ventured; he wanted to know how to lose the trail. “If this really is a world-hopping killer, it lands on us to stop them, right?”

“Yup,” Mickey confirmed. “If someone is causing disturbances between worlds, that falls to us and Disney Castle—the computers there automatically track statistics of these types of things and then look for suspicious patterns and inconsistencies. But that’s all the information we have now unfortunately; we’ll need to do some more investigating...”

Riku listened to the rest of the discussion on autopilot, trying to focus on not being suspicious. As soon as he left the meeting, Riku texted the others, with the heading EMERGENCY.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 482, evening;  
343 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

“They’re onto us,” Riku said immediately, once everyone had gathered. Gasps and shouts came from everyone; Riku held up his hand. “Hold on. It’s not as bad as it sounds. All they’ve noticed is that there’s been an uptick of murders without discernible causes in multiple worlds, as well as more magic-related deaths in worlds that don’t use such. All they suspect right now is that there’s someone world-hopping to kill. They suspected ‘Vanitas’ at first”—Sora visibly paled at that—“but I assured them we’ve had someone supervising him at all times.” Then, Riku grinned. “But the ironic part is that, as protectors of the worlds, it falls to keyblade wielders to solve these types of things—that is, us. IF they determine there’s an issue, we will be helping solve it; Mickey is preparing a missive he’ll send out to you all.”

Lea grinned. “So we have no problems then!”

“We will have to change our methods though,” Xion pointed out.

“Well, Sora and I will, at least,” Riku said. “It’s mostly the unexplained ones that need to be changed. Oh, and also—we need to lock people in less. They’ve noticed that a suspicious amount of people have been found in rooms locked from the inside. That can be tied to the keyblade.”

Sora cringed. “Crap. Should have thought of that.”

“We all should have,” Roxas pointed out. 

“Well, it seems like an easy fix, right?” Kairi said. “Just change up our methods to less suspicious things.”

“Like what?” Roxas asked.

“Easy,” Sora said. “We make sure to use methods native to the worlds, and we use more things that are not delectable.”

“Detectable,” Kairi corrected with a giggle.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Anyway, yeah. Things like poisons that look like heart attacks—but only in older people where that’s likely to happen—or car accidents.”

“I can do that!” Lea said eagerly.

“Without bombs and fire?” Sora asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Good point,” Lea conceded. “Xion, you’re good at messing with mechanics, why don’t you do it?”

“Okay!” Xion said, eyes lighting up. Riku bit his lip; she was still way too eager, even after Lea had talked to her.

Sora noticed this too. “Xion, it’s not a game,” he reminded her.

“I know!” Xion said quickly. “It’s just… well, we have to do it anyway, right? So why not enjoy it?”

“She has a point,” Naminé said.

“I agree,” Kairi, to Riku’s shock, also announced. Why was it that all the girls in their group were suddenly so casual about discussing this? Were all girls like that? Riku was suddenly very glad that he was gay.

Riku sighed. He turned to Sora, silently asking his thoughts, and Sora looked back at Riku and simply shrugged. Well, actually… maybe they did have a point. They were in this to the end, right? So why not make the most of it? They could settle their morals after this was all over.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 504, morning;  
292 Remaining;  
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Riku**

Riku fidgeted slightly; it was three weeks after the previous meeting, and Mickey had called the masters together again with new information on the murder case. Riku was pretty sure it would be good news for Sora’s group, as they definitely had changed their methods significantly…

“The news on the suspicious murders is that there is no news,” Mickey said, to the confusion of everyone but Yen Sid, who looked grim.

“What do you mean?” Riku asked. “Also, why is Ven here?” It should have been a Masters-only meeting.

“Ven was travelling with us, and we didn’t want to leave him alone on the ship,” Aqua explained. “Now, let Mickey finish.”

“What I mean,” said the mouse, “is that there haven’t been any more. They’ve stopped.”

Terra looked confused. “Really? But why would a killer just stop?”

“Maybe something happened to them,” Riku suggested. “Either way, stopping is a good thing, right?”

Mickey shook his head. “It’s not so simple. The increase in _suspicious_ ones has stopped… but the rates of _total_ murders has stayed the same.”

“The methods have changed,” Aqua said in realization. “Do you think they caught on to us investigating?”

Mickey nodded. “Most likely. So the issue now is how.”

“Oh, just come out and say it!” Donald squawked.

“Donald,” Mickey said in warning before speaking to the others again. “The timing is suspicious; either the killer caught on unusually quickly, or received insider information.”

“Or,” Yen Sid continued gravely, “One of our keyblade wielders is the killer.”

Riku tried his best to look as shocked as most the others, although underneath he was starting to panic. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. They should have been smarter about it. Of course that would be suspicious! 

Aqua was the only one who didn’t seem surprised, other than Mickey and Donald. “Vanitas,” Aqua hissed. “I knew he hadn’t changed.”

“But he’s been with Riku or the others constantly,” Goofy pointed out.

“Yeah, we’ve been watching him,” Riku corroborated.

Ventus was glaring at Riku now. “Yeah? You’ve been watching _Vanitas_ , huh?”

“That’s what I said,” Riku said warily, unsure about Ventus’s reaction.

“Vanitas.”

Riku nodded, although he had a sinking feeling about this.

“What are you getting at, Ventus?” Mickey asked.

“He’s lying,” Ventus said simply.

“That’s a big accusation,” Terra said.

“What reason would Riku have to lie about them watching Vanitas?” Mickey inquired.

Ventus shook his head, looking hurt now. “That’s not what he’s lying about.”

Riku bit his lip. Ventus definitely knew. Not about the murders, but…

“Why is Sora pretending to be Vanitas?” Ventus demanded, standing now, although it was hard to tell with his height. “Why has he told all you he’s back, but been hiding it from us?!”

Everyone else let out a gasp at the news. Riku paled, unsure of what to say.

“Well?” Ventus demanded.

“Ventus, hold on a moment,” Aqua said. “Are you absolutely sure? Because the boy at the meeting… well, he was pretty convincing.”

“Even had some sort of creepy demon thing going,” Goofy added. 

“And gold eyes,” Terra pointed out.

“And had way too much attitude to be Sora!” Donald pitched in.

Ventus shook his head. “No, that was definitely Sora. I didn’t realize until later than night… and even if it isn’t Sora, I’m absolutely positive that it isn’t Vanitas.”

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Mickey asked.

Ventus looked uncomfortable at that. “I… I mean, I figured he was keeping it from me for a reason, and would tell me in his own time… but, he hasn’t.”

Riku shook his head. “Sorry, Ventus, but that definitely is Vanitas.” Hopefully he could convince the others it was, at the very least.

“Why are you still trying to lie about it?!” Ventus yelled.

“Ven,” Aqua said, putting her hand on the blonde’s shoulder. “Not even Kairi and Naminé could tell. You could be mistaken.”

“Well, then, those two must be in on it!”

Yen Sid frowned. “Did Kairi ever say how Sora brought her back?” He had been suspiciously silent until then; Riku wondered if he had been aware of the ruse from the start. It was possible; he liked to let people learn things on their own instead of outright explaining things. It was annoying usually, but maybe that would be beneficial for them this time.

“No, he didn’t,” Mickey said, then turned to Riku. “Do you know?”

“No,” Riku lied. “Kairi doesn’t even know how she came back; that part of her memory is blank.” That last bit was the truth at least.

Ventus scoffed. “Well, even if it isn’t Sora, it’s definitely not Vanitas,” he insisted.

“We never saw the person calling himself Vanitas summon any unversed,” Terra pointed out. “Riku, has he ever done with you?”

“Yeah, a few times,” Riku easily lied. “But he’s been controlling it very well now; they’ve been replaced by the wings for the most part.”

Terra nodded. “Good enough for me,” he said. “I trust Riku.”

“Oh, so you’re taking his side?!” Ventus yelled.

“Ven, Riku has no reason to lie about this,” Aqua replied, standing by Terra’s conclusion.

Ventus laughed slightly at that. “Aqua, Riku would do anything if Sora asked him too. Anything. Even commit murder.” Ventus paused, frowning. “Even multiple ones…”

Riku narrowed his eyes. “What are you saying?” he asked, although he knew what Ventus was implying.

“I’m saying maybe you’re the murderer! You use darkness.”

“Ventus!” Mickey gasped. “You can’t just accuse people of that! And there is no way it is Riku. That I am certain of.”

“And you’re saying Sora would have asked him to!” Donald squawked.

“Yeah, Sora could never do that kind of thing,” Goofy added.

Aqua frowned. “Unless he were possessed.”

Riku rolled his eyes. “Sora’s not possessed.” A beat. “We don’t even know where he is,” he added, realizing the implication of the previous claim. That had been close.

Ventus glared at Riku again. “I WILL get to the bottom of this.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 504, afternoon;  
291 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

“Ventus suspects you're not really Vanitas,” Riku said bluntly to Sora upon returning to their base. No reason to drag it out.

Sora’s eyes widened. “How!?”

“Apparently he has since the last meeting, but thought you’d come to him. Then he got mad when we started talking about Vanitas—they were wondering if maybe he was behind the murders, I’ll tell you why later—and claimed that it was you, then amended to maybe not you but definitely not Vanitas. I convinced the others that you are Vanitas, I think, but he’s adamant about it…”

Sora sighed. “I can’t say I’m surprised. Honestly I expected him to say something sooner; if Kairi and Naminé noticed, there’s no way he didn’t, especially as he was connected to Vanitas too…”

Lea, the only other person in the room, pitched in. “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens I guess.”

Sora and Riku agreed; no need to worry about what-ifs. They'd deal with it when the time came.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 506, afternoon;  
289 Remaining;  
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Sora**

They found out what happened sooner than expected. Two days later, in fact, when the entire group—Sora, Riku, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Kairi, and Naminé—happened to all be in the room for their weekly review. Things were still ahead of schedule, with it now looking like they’d be completing the mission a full month and a half early. Then Sora could officially announce his return under the pretense of some lie they had yet to construct. It wasn’t a very formal meeting by far, as everyone was still doing some sort of task or another: Naminé and Kairi were perusing phone books; Sora was mixing some poisons (some more murders that could be explained as natural deaths, like heart attacks, were deemed to be necessary, as well as some more suspicious unidentifiable ones to round things out; they had to be smarter about methods); Xion was doodling plans for creating ‘accidents’ in a notebook; Riku and Roxas were cleaning weapons; and Lea was searching for paper plates for the pizza that should be arriving soon.

On cue, a knock came from the door, and Lea bounded over to pick up the pizza.

Or so he thought. “Aw, shit. You are definitely not the pizza guy.”

Ventus pushed past Lea and into the room. Everyone froze, including Ventus as his anger soon turned into wide-eyed shock as he processed the scene in the room and who was there. Chirithy, under Ventus’s arm, struggled a bit to be put down, but instead Ventus brought the dream-eater to his front and wrapped both arms around it like a child with a teddy bear.

Roxas broke the silence. “How the fuck did you find us?”

Ventus blinked, still processing. “Um. Y-you’re all in on this? Not just Riku and Roxas?”

Roxas narrowed his eyes. “Answer the question first: how the fuck did you find us?”

Ventus leveled his own stare at Roxas. “I put a tracking spell on you yesterday.”

Roxas paled, then turned to Sora. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

Sora put his hand out. “Give me a second,” he said, focused on the magical poison he was mixing. “If I don’t get this right, it’ll explode, which probably would kill everyone here but me.” It wasn’t exactly the truth—the deadly gas released would be the main issue, and that had an antidote—but Sora found that he liked teasing them.

“Then why the fuck are you mixing it here?!” Lea proclaimed. “And what do you mean, except you?”

Sora used a dropper to deposit a tiny drop of a pale blue liquid into the beaker, which hissed and then turned purple. He sat up, satisfied, put a stopper on the beaker, and flashed his fangs in a mischievous grin directed at Lea as he answered, “Demon, remember? Kinda hard to kill us with mundane things.”

Lea raised an eyebrow. “Volatile poisons that explode aren’t exactly mundane.”

Sora shrugged, then took the dropper and squirted the last of the liquid into his mouth, swallowing it. “See? It’s fine.”

Riku narrowed his eyes as he paused in cleaning a silver knife. “What exactly was that?”

“Cyanide.”

Riku put his hand on his forehead. “Why did I even bother asking… you seriously worry me sometimes Sora.”

Sora grinned. “Only sometimes?”

“I think maybe you’re worrying Ventus a bit more,” Kairi pointed out.

Sora cringed. He had somehow forgotten Ventus was there; so much for his plan to ease Ventus into things. “Right, sorry, Ven.”

Ventus snapped out of the brief stupor he’d fallen into while watching the display, and took a deep breath. “Can someone please explain what’s going on here? Why is Sora pretending to be Vanitas, and why do you all appear to be in some sort of serial killer’s apartment?”

“Oh, that’s because we are serial killers!” Xion said joyously.

“Vigilantes,” Lea corrected.

Xion shrugged. “Same difference.”

“Not exactly,” Naminé said. “There’s a different connotation. Serial killers are bad, vigilantes are usually good.”

“I’d say it’s closer to assassins,” Kairi mused. “We have a hit list, after all.”

“Yes, but the people we’re killing are all bad people, so it’s still closer to vigilantes. Assassins don’t really discriminate,” Naminé pointed out.

Riku sighed. “Are you four seriously debating the terminology, AGAIN?” The four cringed, and Riku turned to Ventus. “Sorry about that. If you didn’t catch on from that, yes, we’re the ones that have been killing people across multiple worlds.”

Ventus blinked. “B-bu-but… but why?” he stammered, clearly shocked. 

Chirithy nodded and said, “Yes, that is a good question.”

“Because if we don’t, you all die,” Sora said bluntly, then shrugged. “Well, except Chirithy. I planned to do it on my own, without anyone knowing, but then people kept finding me. The deal didn’t say I couldn’t get help, so they’re all helping now because I was way behind schedule.”

“Sch-schedule? So, you have a quota and time limit?” Ventus asked faintly.

Sora nodded. “Yup. 666 days, one thousand evil people.”

Ventus stared at Sora in complete disbelief. “You’re joking. You have to be joking.”

Sora shook his head. “Nope, not a joke.”

“Then… then you have to tell Aqua and them about it! We could find the demon you made the deal with and kill it or something. Then you can—”

“Nope,” Sora interrupted. “Can’t kill a goddess of death, especially the one in charge of all the other ones.”

“He’s right about that,” Chirithy pitched in.

Ventus looked down at the dream-eater, looking angry. “Whose side are you on?!”

“I’m simply stating a fact.”

“Right. So, yeah, gotta do this without telling them,” Sora said matter-of-factly.

“Ugh!” Ventus exclaimed as he put his hands in his air in frustration, dropping Chirithy in the process. The dream-eater squeaked as it fell to the ground and tried to get back up. Ventus didn’t notice as he continued yelling, “Sora, you’re supposed to be the good guy! Like, the pinnacle of light! And now you’re a demon, killing people at the order of some death goddess?!”

“Reaper, technically," Sora corrected, then grinned somewhat creully. “Ironic, isn’t it?”

Ventus paused in surprise. “Okay. Wow. That was a pretty convincing Vanitas expression.”

Sora grinned much more goofily and put his hands behind his head. “I know, right? And they said being a theater kid wouldn't amount to anything.”

Ventus laughed at seeing Sora’s signature expression. “Now that is all Sora! Except the fangs. Which actually are kinda cool.”

Sora laughed. “Yeah, the fangs were a bit annoying at first, especially as I apparently had a lip-biting habit, but they’re growing on me… oh, and of course there’s the wings and horns!” He pulled both out. “They’re a bit scary though.”

"And tail," Riku reminded Sora.

Sora rolled his eyes and showed his tail, too. "Yes, we all know about your tail fetish, Riku," he said as he swished it around a little, amused as the silverette's eyes automatically began following it like a charmed snake.

Ventus shook his head in fondness. Apparently he was already over his anger—Ventus could never stay angry long. Ventus then hopped over and hugged Sora tightly. “Well, whatever situation you’re in, I’m just happy you’re back. And alive.”

Sora laughed. “Well, I’m back at least. Not sure how reapers are classified though. Although I think I might only be half one or something, I dunno. I don’t sleep or need to breathe, but I still bleed and need to eat? It’s weird. But whatever, it is what it is.” Sora stopped himself from rambling more; he did that when he was nervous, and boy was he nervous.

Ventus tilted his head, which Sora knew to mean curiosity. “Can you fly with those wings?” he asked.

Sora sighed in frustration. “I wish! But they seem to only be for show. And they need to be out when I use reaper magic like turning invisible, which is annoying. I think she only gave me them to fuck with me.”

Ventus raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you curse? I thought that was only from you pretending to be Vanitas…”

Sora shrugged. “Maybe Roxas is rubbing off on me.”

“Hey, I resent that!” Roxas called. “Asshole!”

Sora and Ventus both laughed.

“Okay, I’m in,” Ventus decided.

Sora blinked. That was… unexpected. If he meant what Sora thought he meant. Maybe he should ask to be sure. “What do you mean?”

“I’m in. I’ll help you kill people, as long as Roxas doesn’t try to frame me again.” Ventus grinned teasingly.

“Frame you? When did I frame you for anything!?” Roxas protested.

Ventus raised an eyebrow. “DunBroch?”

Roxas blanched. “That was an accident!”

Ventus laughed. “I know, I know. Still could have warned me not to go there.”

“Oh, and say what, ‘Sorry Ven, accidentally got caught killing someone, might want to stay away'?”

Sora watched in amusement as his two former-heart-hotel-tenets playfully bantered. Maybe things wouldn’t be as bad as he’d imagined they’d be if everyone found out.

Sora then realized Chirithy was standing on the table next to him, also watching the group. “You okay with this?” Sora asked.

Chirithy shrugged. “My job is to guide Ven. If this is his decision, I’ll support it, even though I’m not so keen on seeing him murder people again.”

Sora blinked. “What do you mean, again?!”

“Oh. Oops. I forgot that’s a secret. Don’t tell him; he’s forgotten that. It’s from long ago, anyway.”

Sora looked at Chirithy, baffled. “I can’t just forget about that, Chirithy!”

Chirithy looked Sora in the eyes. “Sora, Vanitas came from Ventus. They were once one person. Do you honestly think it’s normal for one person to hold so much darkness that it can become its own person?”

Sora pondered that for a moment, looking at Ventus owlishly. Was that true? Ventus had once murdered someone without the context of a demon deal?

“Please don’t tell him,” Chirithy begged. “He doesn’t remember, and he truly is a very different person now.

“Right… don’t worry, I won’t tell,” Sora promised, and he meant it. Ventus was so innocent and light—it’d destroy him to learn that his past self, well, wasn’t. 

“Oh, phew,” Chirithy said, visibly relaxing. “Hey, do you have anything to drink around here?”

“Oh, yeah, there’s bottled water and soda in—”

“No, no, not that kind! Real drinks. I need something to take the edge off.”

Sora looked at Chirithy in surprise. Really? Did it really mean…? Better ask. “You mean alcohol?”

“Yes!”

“Okay… okay, yeah, we have that. It’s in the cabinet over there,” Sora said, gesturing to the corner of the room, then watched in slight shock as Chirithy immediately hopped over to the cabinet to help itself to some drinks. 

Things had certainly become interesting, to say the least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: The Masters have another meeting... Without Riku. Then a meeting is called for all the keyblade wielders. Have the Masters grown suspicious of some of the young wielders?
> 
> Expect it most likely Wednesday 12/9/20 or Thursday 12/10/20!


	5. Thank You for the Venom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Masters become suspicious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually kept this chapter under 5k words! Barely, but still. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> It's nearly all Sora's POV; that's just how it worked out.

**Day 525, afternoon;  
233 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Mickey**

“I think it’s some sort of vigilante,” stated Mickey while in a meeting with Yen Sid, Aqua, Terra, Donald, and Goofy. They had intentionally left Riku out.

“A vigilante?” Aqua asked.

Mickey nodded. “We’ve discovered that all of the victims have been objectively bad people. Other serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, mob bosses, drug peddlers, et cetera.”

Terra frowned. “Then, is it really worth trying to stop them?”

“Yeah,” Donald agreed. “If they’re all bad, it’s good that they’re being killed!”

Aqua sighed. “No. Murder is murder, bad people or not. If someone wants to play vigilante, they should capture the people and bring them to the authorities, not straight-up kill them. They’re playing god.”

Mickey nodded. “Exactly. But, there have been incidents in multiple worlds at once, and the rate is increasing again…”

“You think it’s a group,” Terra said in realization. “A group of people world-hopping to play hero…”

“Is that why you didn’t invite Riku here?” Aqua demanded. “You think he’s in on it?”

Yen Sid answered that. “Not necessarily. But he interacts the most with the younger wielders, and we don’t want him tipping them off.”

“So you do think it’s someone, or multiple people, from our group of keyblade wielders,” Aqua concluded.

Yen Sid and Mickey nodded. The latter said, “I don’t want to believe it. But there aren’t any other large groups of affiliated world-hopping people around that we’re aware of. I believe we must call a meeting with the entire group. Perhaps we can devise a way to uncover if any of them are at fault. There is also another matter I’d like to discuss...”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 527, afternoon;  
228 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Sora**

Sora paced across the room, the journal in his hand. “No, no, no, no, no…”

“What’s wrong?” Riku asked, putting his hand on Sora’s shoulder to halt him.

Sora turned to Riku with pained and panicked eyes, and held out the black book of names. Riku read the lines, and then his eyes grew wide. Sora waited for a reaction, but it appeared Riku wasn’t sure what to say.

Sora sighed. “What do I do, Riku? I can’t…”

“What’s wrong now?” Roxas asked as he reentered the room from the bathroom. Riku handed him the notebook, and his eyes grew wide too.

“What do we do?” Sora asked Roxas pleadingly. “We can’t…”

Roxas sighed. “Sora, you don’t actually know him that well.”

“Well, yeah, but I still know him! And he helped get you your body.”

Roxas rolled his eyes. “He’s still a shitty person. I don’t particularly mind if he dies.”

“No, his Nobody was a shitty person. They’ve all changed!”

Roxas raised an eyebrow. “He’s on the list. Which means clearly he hasn’t. And judging by how cruel his Nobody was—”

“But Nobodies and Somebodies are different people!”

“Okay, maybe, but there’s still some reflection between them! It usually doesn’t completely change personalities, at least in the ones who’ve kept their memory. Maybe he’s nicer now, I don’t know. But somewhere along the lines he did something bad enough to make this list—I bet anything it has to do with the experiments he and the other so-called ‘students of the heart’ did back before they were Nobodies, since, you know, they were experimenting on children! I’m surprised more of them aren’t on the list actually.”

Sora bit his lip unconsciously, then swore. Damn fangs. Roxas had a good point though; all the people on the list were shitty people, and Sora technically didn’t know the guy well at all. He never actually met him in-person, just while on video calls. But, wait—others in the group had...

Roxas rolled his eyes again. “Look, I’ll do it, okay?”

Sora shook his head. “Let’s ask the others first. Some of them interacted with him more, particularly Lea and Naminé.”

“What about me?” Lea asked, entering the apartment.

“Oh. Dilan’s on our list,” Roxas said bluntly.

Lea blinked in surprise, looking less concerned about that than Sora had expected. “Huh. What do you know; guess the rumors were true,” the redhead commented.

“What rumors?” Sora asked. Did Lea know why Dilan was on the list?

Lea sighed. “As you know, they did experiments on children. Nothing was confirmed, but… well, supposedly Dilan often stayed late at the labs with them, long after everyone else had left; catch my drift?”

Sora became confused, not getting the implication, but Roxas and Riku seemed to catch on. “What do you mean?” Sora asked.

“Hmm. How about another example, then: he and Aeleus usually were the ones assigned to throw me and Isa out of the castle when we snuck in, and Dilan was awfully handsy compared to Aeleus,” Lea said. When Sora gave a confused look, Lea added, “Inappropriately so.” Ah. Okay, yes, Sora knew what he meant now, and decided he was perfectly okay with killing the guy after all, especially if he hurt Lea in any way.

Roxas narrowed his eyes, apparently thinking the same. “Okay, that tears it. I call dibs on killing him.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 528, afternoon;  
225 Remaining;   
Land of Departure, conference room;  
POV Sora**

“Where is Roxas?” Yen Sid asked the group. Everyone once again sat around the gigantic meeting table at the Land of Departure, except for the aforementioned blonde. For some reason, the elderly wizard looked at Sora for a response. “Vanitas, do you know?”

Sora, still pretending to be Vanitas, scoffed. “Why the fuck would I know?” In actuality, he did know, and it was not a place he wanted those not in-the-know to find out: Radiant Garden, killing Dilan. Sora had suggested he wait, but Roxas had been determined to do it ASAP, and had been convinced he could do it before the meeting.

“Well, you are with him the most,” Yen Sid pointed out.

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t make me his keeper, old man.” Sora actually felt kinda good being able to talk back to Yen Sid like this; he’d never do this if he weren’t ‘Vanitas’. Sora sneered. “Besides, isn’t he supposed to be keeping an eye on me, not vice-versa?”

“Vanitas, behave,” Riku said, giving him a stare.

Sora scoffed again and slumped back into his chair, crossing his arms. “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he said petulantly, then caught the odd look Aqua was giving him. “What?” he said to her.

Aqua gave a start. “Oh. I just didn’t expect you to actually listen to Riku.”

“So, you still don’t think I can change,” Sora said flatly.

Aqua cringed slightly. “I’m… sorry,” she sighed. “I know you’ve been working hard on it. It’s just… it’s hard to get past the memories.”

Sora winced, unsure what to say to that. He did feel bad about bringing those memories to the front by pretending to be someone who hurt her so badly so many times; he knew how deep that trauma went, as he’d seen it when he touched her heart in the graveyard.

Terra put his hand on Aqua’s shoulder in solidarity.

Roxas then entered the room, sitting in the seat reserved for him next to Sora. He whispered into Sora’s ear, “It’s done.” Sora nodded, glad, until Roxas continued. “But someone saw; he’s tied up at the base.”

Sora narrowed his eyes and abruptly turned to look at Roxas. “What?” he hissed.

Roxas shook his head slightly and nodded towards the rest of the room, indicating they should leave this discussion for later. Half the group—the ones in on it—was giving them worried looks, while Aqua, Terra, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy looked confused at the secret exchange.

Yen Sid chose to ignore it. “Glad you could join us, Roxas. Now, to business. We have new information on the inter-world murders. Mickey, would you please explain?”

Mickey nodded. “The other Masters and I now believe that the murders are being conducted by a group who fashion themselves vigilantes.”

Sora glanced at Riku, worried. From the look on the silverette’s face, he hadn’t been aware of this information, meaning he had been left out. That was an extremely bad sign; it meant that the others suspected Riku or someone in their group. No… multiple someones. They said it was a group. Fuck.

“Why do you think that?” asked Kairi. Good; she was the one they’d be least likely to suspect, being a Princess of Heart, so asking would be seen as innocent.

Mickey seemed to be debating internally whether to answer, but he finally did. “Well, we suspect vigilantes because all those killed have been those of ill-repute. As to a group, there’s simply too many too close together in time while too far apart in distance. It’s not logistically possible.”

“And you’re sure all of them were killed by the same people?” Naminé asked.

Mickey nodded. “At the very least, we know they were killed by people not from their own world, thanks to some scientific things devised by the team at Radiant Garden.”

Sora and Roxas exchanged a look. Not good. Dilan being killed now, just after helping look for the criminal, would look very very bad.

Yen Sid noticed their look. “Sora, do you know something?” the elderly wizard asked, eyes narrowed. Sora unconsciously turned towards him before realizing that he shouldn’t be answering to that name. His eyes widened slightly. Yen Sid knew? Or had that been a test? Others turned to him now, and Yen Sid seemed to be looking around the table, probably gauging reactions.

“What? Sora’s not here,” Ventus said, acting confused.

Sora took that as his cue. He raised an eyebrow. “Do you need glasses, pops? I know we look similar, but no fucking way am I anything like that sad excuse for a sap.”

“You reacted to the name,” Yen Sid said simply.

Sora’s mind raced to think of a good reason for that. “Well, duh. You say the name of someone who can’t possibly be here, and everyone’s going to react.”

Some of the others muttered in agreement. Mickey looked around at the group, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How many of you are in on it?” he asked simply, receiving surprised reactions that were immediately hidden from more people than he expected, judging by his own surprised look. Riku didn’t react visibly, though he held Sora’s hand under the table.

“In on what?” Kairi asked with her best display of innocence.

“On hiding the fact that that isn’t Vanitas,” Terra stated firmly.

“What? Of course it is,” Ventus said in response. “I’d know Vanitas anywhere!”

Aqua looked at Ventus in shock. “You’re in on it?”

A GummiPhone ringing brought a welcome interruption—but only briefly as Mickey checked the number and then decided to answer it, even though it was during a meeting. The only ones with GummiPhones who weren’t at the meeting tended to only call with important things. “Aeleus! This is a surprise. We’re in the middle of a meeting, can this wait?”

“No. Dilan is dead and Ienzo is missing.”

The table was filled with gasps, wide-eyes, surprise, and pale faces, most of them false expressions. The whole group of killers knew Dilan would die, although Ienzo being gone was unexpected… no, wait. Roxas had said someone was tied up… 

“Gosh,” Mickey said, blinking a few times. “Do you think Ienzo—”

“I don’t know,” Aeleus replied. “But for what it’s worth, I don’t think Ienzo would do something like this. Even as Zexion he was reluctant to participate in such violence. If he is missing, I believe he must either have been kidnapped or is still fleeing the attacker.”

“Do you need us to send assistance?”

“Not right now; the Radiant Garden patrol, led by Leon, are currently doing a search. But if they can’t find him on this world, we will be needing your help.”

“You think he’s been taken off-world?” Mickey asked.

“You can never be too sure, especially if there is some sort of new group capable of world-hopping.”

Mickey nodded. “That’s right. Well, I need to get back to the meeting; if you have any more information, please let us know asap.”

“Will do.” Aeleus hung up.

Mickey immediately turned to Roxas. “Where were you right before this?” he demanded.

Roxas blinked in surprise. “Me? Um. In the bathroom taking a crap.”

“You were nearly fifteen minutes late.”

“Well, it was a big crap!” Roxas defended. “Why do you wanna know, anyway?”

Sora scoffed. “Probably ‘cause he suspects you, duh. Gotta admit, it is suspicious.”

Roxas glared at Sora. “Where do you get off accusing me of such bullshit?”

Sora shrugged, giving a smug smile and crossing his arms. “Just saying it like it is.”

“Yeah, well, fuck you too.”

“Gladly,” Sora quipped with a sneer, which seemed to throw Roxas off while Riku's expression briefly flashed something that looked like jealousy. If it weren't the middle of a meeting, Sora would have laughed and taken the opportunity to call him on that with some flirtatious teasing.

“Boys!” Yen Sid said loudly. “Let us return to the subject at hand.”

“Which one?” Lea asked. When Yen Sid gave him a look, Lea clarified, “There’s a lot of them!” He counted on his fingers. “The murder-group, Vanitas’s identity, Roxas’s crap, Dilan’s murder…”

Yen Sid frowned. “Let us first discuss the subject of this not being Vanitas despite your insistence that it is.”

Sora scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Riiiiiiight, you think I’m that little goody two-shoes twink,” he said mockingly.

“What’s a twink?” Kairi asked innocently. Naminé whispered something in her ear that caused Kairi to blush down to her neck.

Sora continued, ignoring that. “Where’s your evidence, other than that sad excuse for a trick with the name?”

“Well, for one, you’re holding hands with Riku under the table,” Terra pointed out. “Which would be very unusual for Vanitas, even if working on becoming better.”

Sora blushed and let go of Riku’s hand, quickly bringing it back onto the table. In his peripherals Sora noticed Riku had had the same reaction. He quickly morphed his expression to what he hoped was an indignant look. “W-well, maybe I changed faster than you expected!” Sora defended, trying to keep in character… actually, technically it was true, although Sora had been the one to change drastically, and in the opposite direction. Becoming a demon that murdered people did that to a person.

“There was also your reaction earlier, when I mentioned the memories,” Aqua said slowly, as though she’d just realized. “You didn’t have a reply; almost looked sad actually.”

Sora winced. “Well, that just shows I’ve reformed, right? I can feel guilty now. Guilt is part of why I wanted to reform anyway.” Sora knew he wasn’t being very convincing. He added, trying to sound bitter, “Not that you’d ever believe it anyway.”

“Sora,” Naminé said firmly yet gently, and he looked at her, surprised and a little hurt she’d used his name. Shouldn’t she be on his side? Naminé looked Sora in the eyes. “You need to drop the charade now. They know, and won’t change their minds; I can feel it. Continuing to pretend will only worsen things.”

Sora sighed. Naminé was right, of course. He briefly debated turning invisible and fleeing, but thought better of it. Invisible or not he’d still be tangible; they could block him with a barrier or someone could grab him. He was near the door though... 

“Sora, don’t,” Riku warned via a whisper in his ear, guessing what Sora had planned.

He had no choice then. Sora crossed his arms in a pout and glared at the table. “Fine. Yeah, you caught me. I’m Sora.”

“To be certain, I will use an anti-disguise spell on the room,” Yen Sid said, which it seemed he’d already prepared as he brought out a small opaque corked jar. He opened it and green smoke emitted from it, quickly engulfing the room; when it had settled, Sora’s hair had returned to its usual brown, confirming things. It also caused Xion and Naminé to make some sounds of annoyance, as they’d both put a blue streak in their hair just this morning, which vanished too. Soda rubbed at his eyes, itchy after the contacts had dissolved into nothingness.

“Why were you pretending to be Vanitas?” Donald demanded. Sora blinked; he’d forgotten Donald and Goofy were there. The latter simply looked confused at the turn of events; maybe he hadn’t actually caught on like the others had.

“Because I didn’t want to be found, obviously,” Sora snapped, avoiding that the reason for that was being a reaper who was required to murder a thousand people. He was incredibly glad that the disguise-revealing spell hadn’t made the demon features visible too.

Someone had to ask, though. “But why hide from your friends?” Goofy questioned.

Sora shrugged, trying to think of a good excuse.

“He needed time to himself,” Naminé answered for him. “Right, Sora? Things were too stressful. You didn’t want to take on more responsibilities, but didn’t want to disappoint others by turning things down. It’s not in your nature to not help people when asked. So you hid.”

Sora nodded. “Yeah, that,” he said, and it looked like the Masters easily believed it. Did they really think him that cowardly? Well, whatever—it worked in Sora’s favor.

“But why pretend to be Vanitas to hide?” Aqua demanded.

Sora shrugged. “When Mickey saw me on the GummiPhone and Roxas lied, we figured why not roll with it. Hidden in plain sight or whatever.” He grinned mischievously. “Plus, it was kinda fun too.”

“Sora, drop the cocky attitude; you don’t need to pretend to be him anymore,” Terra said tiredly.

Riku rolled his eyes at that. “Good luck with that,” he said, and Sora elbowed him hard. “Ow! Seriously?” he turned to glare at Sora, who ignored it.

“Who said I’m pretending?” Sora taunted. He probably should settle down, he thought, but this was rather fun… some of the teens around the table snickered or whispered to each other, while the adults other than Lea all looked baffled at Sora’s newfound cockiness.

After about a half hour more of conversation that basically got nowhere in relation to the murders, which thankfully all those not-in-the-know hadn’t connected to them one iota from what Sora could tell, the meeting was dismissed. Sora tried to practically run out of there. Tried.

“Sora,” said Yen Sid firmly, still seated. “You are to stay. Roxas, Riku, you too. Mickey and I need to speak to you three.”

“Probably more like interrogate us some more,” Roxas said under his breath, so neither Mickey nor Yen Sid could hear. Riku rolled his eyes and Sora scoffed.

Once everyone had left, Yen Sid changed the table to a rectangular one more like a desk, where he and Mickey sat on one side and Riku, Sora, and Roxas sat on the other, in that order.

Sora crossed his arms. “So what’s this about? Gonna give us some sort of lecture?”

Mickey narrowed his eyes. “Whereas I am extremely disappointed in all three of you, particularly you, Riku, being a Master”—Riku winced—“for this charade—which I’m sure others were in on—this isn’t about that. It’s about the other subject we discussed today.”

Sora tried to react appropriately. Confused? Yeah, that was a good one. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“Yeah, what do we have to do with that?” Roxas asked, while Riku, as usual, maintained a poker face and waited for Mickey to continue.

“Something I didn’t mention earlier was that the murders changed whenever we learned more information,” Mickey informed them. “Once we initially announced to the group that there had been excessive amounts of murders with unusual causes for their worlds, they stopped, although the overall count didn’t go down. In short, tactics were switched. Then, after the meeting only the Masters had about that, things changed again. More were overlapping, and the ones without known causes increased slightly, leveling the proportions.” He turned to Riku. “However, during a meeting we had without you, where we discussed it could be a group due to overlapping ones, nothing changed.”

Riku paled. “So you think either I’m in on it, or someone I told is.”

Yen Sid answered. “I would like to say it must be the latter, but the former cannot be ruled out. Past Masters have fallen to the dark, as you are well aware, and even you have in the past.”

“Riku would never turn to the darkness again,” Roxas, surprisingly, defended Riku. Sora was happy about that—it meant they actually had managed to become friends. 

“Yeah,” Sora added. “Besides, didn’t you say they were only killing bad people or something? Why would someone dark only kill bad people?” Riku kicked Sora under the table, probably reminding him not to say too much that was suspicious. But Sora knew his former self would ask that, innocent to how dark and light were not complete opposites.

Yen Sid shook his head. “Good or bad, killing people is wrong.”

“But we killed Xehanort, Vanitas, and the Nobodies,” Sora pointed out. “How are they any different?”

Mickey blinked, then turned to Yen Sid. “He has a point.”

Yen Sid frowned. “Those circumstances were different. Besides, most of them weren’t—”

Sora nearly growled. “If you say they weren’t real people, I’m going to—” Riku put his hand over Sora’s mouth and gave him a warning look, and Sora cringed. Losing his temper right now was not a good thing. He glanced over at Roxas, who had his eyes narrowed and was biting his lip, clearly trying to hold in his anger too. He had been a Nobody, after all. Or, still was? Sora wasn’t sure how that worked; he had a full heart now, after all. Did Roxas think of himself as one? Should Sora ask?

Yen Sid, maintaining his stoic demeanor, tried again. “Those people were out to destroy the entire world as well as us. It was self-defense, if you will. That is not the case with these murders, in both degree of danger and amount. This type of vigilantism is only a short step from killing innocents, which it seems the group already has done, as one of the scientists waiting on our efforts to solve the murders has been killed.”

Riku put a hand on Sora’s knee to ground him, and Sora did the same to Roxas; they were a stone’s throw away from defending that kill, which would undoubtedly give them away—especially Sora, who could tell he was on the verge of having his wings pop out. None of those they killed had been innocent! Well, none of those they intentionally killed. There had been collateral damage in a few cases, particularly with the orchestrated ‘accidents’... huh. Maybe they'd already tumbled down that slippery slope. 

Mickey looked at the three, eyes narrowed. “Yen Sid and I would like you to stay at the Tower for the next two weeks.”

Sora gave a start. “Wait, what? Why?”

“Because they suspect us,” Riku told Sora calmly. “If the murders stop or go down, they’ll conclude it was us or that we’re involved.”

Sora almost bit his lip, then remembered the fangs and pouted instead. “Well, they’re not going to go down,” he said, sounding confident but in actuality was worried. “Though I appreciate your trust in us,” he added sarcastically.

“Why do you suspect me and Sora, anyway?” Roxas asked skeptically. “Riku I can see, but Sora?”

Yen Sid narrowed his eyes at Roxas. “You already killed recently. Ventus nearly took the blame.”

Roxas paled. “I maintain that was self-defense.”

“That may be, but given the current circumstances, that still arouses suspicion.”

“Okay, fine,” Roxas conceded with a small hint of anger. “But what about Sora? He’s probably the person you’d least expect to kill, aside from Kairi.”

“Guilt by association,” Sora realized. “They suspect you two, they suspect it’s a group, I’m around you two the most.” He glared at Yen Sid. “It’s stupid. You’ll just be wasting everyone’s time.”

Roxas put a hand on Sora’s shoulder. “It’s their mistake,” he said. “Besides, it’s only two weeks.”

Sora considered that. Two weeks wasn’t that bad, but could the others keep the numbers up enough? He turned to Riku. “What do you think?”

Riku, arms crossed, shrugged. “It is what it is. Honestly, I don’t blame them for a lack of trust, considering they were betrayed by people they trusted in the past.”

Sora cringed. “I guess that’s true.” He felt pretty bad about actually being one of those people now—and dragging literally all of the younger generation of keyblade wielders into it. But it was for all of their sakes in the end, so worth it… right? Right. Definitely worth it.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 528, evening;  
225 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, bedroom;  
POV Sora**

Sora groaned as he collapsed on a bed in his assigned room of the Mysterious Tower, falling onto his back sideways across the bed. Riku and Roxas collapsed similarly next to him. Sora wished they could have stayed at the Land of Departure, but apparently that place was more difficult to supervise due to its size and number of exits, so they’d been stuck staying here, where Yen Sid could keep a close eye on them.

“Well, fuck,” Riku said, expressing all their sentiments. “How are we gonna get out of this one?”

“I guess it depends on if the others can pick up the slack,” Sora mused.

Riku sighed. “Only way that’ll happen is if Kairi and Naminé join in.”

Sora groaned. “Well, that’ll never happen. We’re screwed.”

Roxas sat up on his elbows and looked at Sora, grinning slyly. “Unless they can bring a certain former-Nobody on board…”

Sora grinned. “Roxas, you’re a genius. I’m sure they will.”

Riku sat up and frowned. “What are you two talking about?”

“Wait,” Sora said, ignoring Riku for a moment. “Roxas, you put him somewhere they’ll find him, right?”

Roxas frowned slightly. “Um... Maybe?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, does anyone ever use the cleaning closet? You know, where the vacuum and shit like that is.”

Sora groaned. No one in the group but Riku cared enough to clean anything, especially not with a vacuum. Hell, not even Riku used the vacuum, as there was too much stuff all over the floor. “If he dies, it’s on you,” Sora told Roxas.

“Please tell me what’s going on,” Riku said. “Who is in the cleaning closet? Is it Ienzo? He was the one missing, right?”

“Oh, right, forgot you didn’t know,” Roxas said to the silverette. “So, I went to kill Dilan, right? He stayed in the lab while the others went out to get lunch, which gave me the perfect opportunity. I approached him under the guise of asking about my replica body, then I stabbed him with a syringe to inject poison. It should have been simple and straightforward. But the usual dose must have been too small for a guy his size, because instead of just falling dead he went into some drug-induced craze and started attacking. So I had to fight him. Well, I guess Ienzo actually hadn’t left with the others, rather went to a different room, and upon hearing the commotion he rushed in and saw me stab Dilan in the neck—”

“You stabbed him in the NECK?” Riku interrupted, looking at the blonde in disbelief. Sora understood why Riku was worried; that left a huge mess and would very obviously be deemed a murder. Hopefully they wouldn’t be able to tell the weapon was a keyblade.

“Well, yeah, have you seen the guy? I had to kill him quickly. Neck was the best place for that. Blood was everywhere though; I must have traumatized Ienzo… anyway, so Ienzo was just standing there frozen, so I conked him on the head, put him in a body bag, put on one of the spare lab coats to hide all the blood on my clothes, and went back to our apartment. Then I stuffed him in the closet, changed, and went to the meeting.” Roxas said this with the air of casualness they’d all ended up developing towards such incidents.

“Hey, wait a second; should we really be talking about this here?” Sora suddenly wondered. “Can’t he listen in?”

“Hmm. Good point,” Roxas said. “Although pretty sure all the rooms still have silencing charms on them.”

“Why do they have silencing charms?” Sora wondered. They hadn’t when he’d stayed there last, before the keyblade graveyard battle.

Roxas grinned mischievously. “Let’s just say Axel doesn’t know how to stay quiet.”

“Hmmm. I wonder if Riku can keep quiet,” Sora mused, side-eyeing the silverette, who was entranced by Sora’s tail waving back and forth in front of him. Sora felt like a snake charmer… or rather, a Riku-charmer, he supposed would be the correct term.

Riku’s eyes widened and his cheeks reddened. “Wh-what?!” he stammered, looking at Sora like a deer in the headlights. 

“You heard me,” Sora purred, putting his hands behind his head and aiming for an alluring look while gently brushing Riku’s cheek with his tail. There was no way Riku wouldn’t understand the signals Sora was giving him, right?

Riku looked at Sora incredulously, seeming unsure what to say or do. Sora sighed in frustration. Great, he had broken the guy. Too much too fast? Was it the tail? Or was Riku still somehow unsure that his feelings were returned? Ugh. Riku’s obliviousness was going to be the death of Sora. Still, it was kinda fun teasing Riku like this.

Roxas rolled his eyes. “Seriously? You two are ridiculous.”

Sora snickered, then hopped up and off the bed. “Come on, let’s go find some food; I’ve been eating take-out all week. This Tower’s got to have something better than that.”

Roxas hopped off the bed too and headed for the door, but Riku was still frozen. Sora sighed, then grabbed the silverette’s arm and practically dragged him from the room, remembering to put his tail away on the way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up:   
> -Will the others be able to compensate for the boys' absence?   
> -What will happen with Ienzo?  
> -Sora and Roxas cannot sit through the assigned readings, so they decide to bake drug-laced brownies.
> 
> Expect it Saturday, 12/12 or Sunday, 12/13!


	6. Teenagers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will the others be able to carry on without Roxas, Riku, and Sora? Will the three boys be cleared of suspicion? And what will the three do to pass the time while stuck at the Tower?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has some drug use in the second half, fyi. I also added a tag for implied/referenced abuse; it's not towards any of the main characters, rather in regards to a victim of one of the people on the hit list.

**Day 528, evening;  
225 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Naminé**

“Well, this sucks,” Ventus declared with a frustrated sigh. He was met with similar sentiments all around.

The group, minus Roxas, Sora, and Riku, were gathered in their base, shortly after the meeting. Aqua had told them not to wait for those three when she noticed they were hovering outside the door; she hadn't told them why. The only logical conclusion was that the three boys either were suspects in the murders or the Masters wanted to interrogate Sora more about his disappearance. Naminé really hoped it was the latter.

Upon entering the apartment Naminé sat on the couch and immediately began meditating, trying to connect to Sora to find out what was happening (what she had initially suspected to be a broken connection after Sora's disappearance had turned out to simply be Sora blocking her with his newfound demon abilities); she hated to use her power this way—it felt too similar to how she had to reach for him at Castle Oblivion—but it was urgent.

“What do we do if they’re discovered?” Kairi asked worriedly.

Lea shrugged. “We finish in their place,” he said simply. “We only have, what, about two hundred more? So two, three months at most if we keep up this pace.”

“But we’re down three people,” Xion pointed out. "So I'd estimate a minimum of three months, maybe four since only Sora's been killing full-time."

Kairi frowned. “But if the rate falls, won’t that just prove that those three were involved?”

“And remember, we can’t change any patterns now, or they may suspect something again,” Lea pointed out.

“Well, technically it’d only be down two people from before,” Ventus pointed out. “I started more recently, remember? And didn't kill that many, since I’m not as used to it as you all. So there won’t be a significant pattern of increase yet due to me.”

Kairi nodded. “In that case, I’ll join in,” she said adamantly. When everyone but Naminé stared at her, she clarified further. “It’s the only way, right? You need more people. I have to do this.”

“I will, too,” Naminé added, opening her eyes. “They weren’t technically discovered, but Sora, Riku, and Roxas are being confined to the Tower for two weeks under suspicion. If the murder rate goes down, it’ll prove they were involved. We need to maintain the same rate of kills or they truly will be discovered.”

Everyone gave a start as a sudden banging came from the closet door. They all looked at each other in worry.

“Um. We didn’t have anyone kidnapped before we left for the meeting, did we?” Ventus asked nervously.

Lea shook his head. “No… but didn’t Aeleus say Ienzo went missing after Roxas killed Dilan?”

“So you think Ienzo is in there?” Kairi asked tepidly. “Why?”

“He must have seen,” Xion concluded. “That’s why Roxas was later than expected—he had to bring Ienzo here.”

“That means you’re up, Naminé,” Lea said.

Naminé nodded in understanding, face pale. “I suppose I have to, although I am reluctant to do such on a friend… he did help get me my body, after all. Roxas’s, too.”

“Do you think he’d be willing to join in, then?” Ventus said hopefully. “We could use more people, after all!”

Lea raised his eyebrows. “Ienzo? You want to bring Ienzo on board?”

Ventus shrugged. “Why not?”

“If he agrees, I could help determine if he’d truly be on-board with it,” Naminé decided. “Not force him, but just double-check. If he isn’t, rather plans to report it, then I can alter his memories.” She hated to do so, but understood that sometimes doing things you dislike is necessary.

“It would be smart to bring him on,” Xion pointed out. “He works in the lab that's processing evidence related to our murders.”

“Um, one moment,” Kairi interjected. “Shouldn’t we make sure it is Ienzo in there, first?”

Everyone looked at each other. Yes, that was a good idea. Lea took the lead, heading towards the closet. Everyone drew their keyblades and circled around as he opened the door, revealing… a body bag. Naminé unzipped it to unveil an extremely terrified small blue-haired man. Ienzo looked around at all the keyblades pointed at him; he seemed to be trying to say something, but around the gag it was impossible. Lea and Ventus grabbed him and pushed him to a chair, which Naminé and Kairi tied him to tightly. Xion stood behind him and removed the gag.

Ienzo gasped. “Wh-what is going on here? Are… are you all truly the killers? All…” he looked around. “All five of you? Or, six including Roxas?”

“Sora and Riku too,” Ventus added, and the others glared at him in annoyance. Ventus shrugged. “What? If we’re bringing him on board, he should know.”

Ienzo looked at Ventus in utter shock. “Bringing me on board?! On board with what? Murdering people? Roxas killed Dilan! You’ve—”

“Don’t speak,” Xion said from behind him, holding a knife to Ienzo’s throat.

“Xion,” Kairi said gently, putting a hand on the noirette’s shoulder and another on her wrist to guide her to pull the knife back. “We want him to help willingly, not under threat.”

“Help with what?” Ienzo asked weakly and nervously.

Channelling Roxas, Ventus said bluntly, “We have about three months to kill another 150 people or everyone who was in the Keyblade Graveyard dies.”

Ienzo blinked at him. “What?”

Kairi shrugged. “In short, Sora was stupid and made some deal with a death goddess.”

“And you have to… kill people… to uphold it?”

“Yup,” Xion chimed in. “At first Sora tried to do it alone, but then we found him, and discovered he was waaaaay behind schedule, so we decided to help. First it was just me, Lea, Riku, and Roxas, but then Kairi and Naminé joined in once they found out, and then Ventus too.”

Ienzo tilted his head in slight bafflement. “So you’re saying… the entire generation of new keyblade wielders are serial killers?”

“We prefer the term ‘vigilantes’,” Naminé informed the bluenette. “We have a list of who to kill, a thousand total. They’re all bad people.”

Ienzo quieted for a moment, then seemed to realize something. “But… then why did Roxas kill Dilan? Was he on that list, or just in the way? Are you going to kill me, too, if I don’t agree to help?”

Kairi shook her head. “No. If you don’t agree, Naminé will make you forget about this. You’ll think you saw Dilan dead, then ran in fear, not remembering who killed him or any of this kidnapping.”

“It’s not kidnapping,” Ventus defended.

Lea laughed. “Seriously? What is it, then? Because it sure looks like kidnapping to me!”

“Let’s stay on topic,” Xion said. “Ienzo, will you help us?”

Ienzo blinked. “Well. Hmm. Was Dilan on the list?” Xion nodded, and the bluenette asked, “Why?”

Lea sighed. “You know those rumors? Back before we were Nobodies?” he waited until Ienzo nodded shakily before continuing, “Well, turns out they were true.”

Ienzo paled. “I had no idea,” he said quietly. He paused. “So… why would you want me helping?”

“Well, two reasons," Kairi said, taking charge. “One, we’re down three people, as Yen Sid has confined Sora, Roxas, and Riku to the Tower under suspicion. If we don’t keep up the same amount of murders, they’ll know they’re involved. So, we need help.”

“And two,” Naminé continued, “You work at the lab that has been collecting evidence. You can interfere with that, maybe even fudge the numbers.”

Ienzo nodded. “Might I have a moment to think? Maybe, not tied to a chair though?”

“How do we know you won’t try to escape?” Xion demanded, knife at the ready again.

“Xion,” Kairi said gently, once again placing her hand on the girl's shoulder. “Remember, no threatening.”

Ienzo looked at the girls nervously, obviously disturbed by the display. “I won’t try to escape, I promise. You can even leave my hands tied up. Feet too if you’d like. But I’d like to think and discuss things more, and doing it tied in a chair is not very comfortable.”

The group eventually agreed, then untied Ienzo from the chair, keeping his wrists and ankles bound as they plopped him onto the couch to converse. Naminé sincerely hoped they could persuade him; he would be a very useful asset.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 531, afternoon;  
219 Remaining;   
Christmas Town, Santa’s office;  
POV Santa**

Santa frowned at the list in front of them. Had there been some sort of technical error? That had never happened before, but there was no way this was accurate—a Princess of Light could never be on the Naughty List! Never. On top of that, so were most of her friends, the other heroes of the worlds! Perhaps the list had misinterpreted what had happened during the battle? Santa mentally counted the days since their battle in the graveyard. No, that had been more than a year prior, so had no effect on this year’s lists...

Santa attempted to erase the names and put them on the Nice List manually, but they magically moved back as soon as he did so. Very strange. What’s more was that, when he asked the list why, it wouldn’t tell him—something was blocking him from reading the catalogs of their naughty and nice actions. Something was afoot; perhaps he should contact the children himself, see if they had gotten tangled in something world-threatening again that could affect magical lists.

Santa glanced up from his list and out the window, only to glimpse in the distance a human-sized female figure with red hair heading towards the elf tenements. A human? Oh! Perhaps that was one of the children in question; you had to use magic to get to the holiday villages uninvited, meaning very few humans other than keyblade wielders could get here. Well, surely she would stop by, then he could ask her! 

After a half hour of waiting for the girl, Santa began to wonder. Come to think of it, it was very strange for the girl to be going that direction; perhaps she had become lost? Well, Santa needed a walk anyway; might as well go find her.

Santa almost crashed into the girl as she hurriedly rounded a corner. He recognized her immediately. “Kairi!” Santa greeted, then remembered usually wielders only showed up when there was trouble. “Why, what brings you here? Surely there isn’t trouble from those nasty shadow creatures again, is there?”

“What? Oh, no, nothing like that,” Kairi promised quickly. “No trouble at all. I’m just here for cookies and hot chocolate!”

Santa raised an eyebrow. Could the princess be lying? If it were anyone else, he’d be suspicious. “Alone?”

“Um… yes! We’re having a party, and I thought it’d be great to surprise everyone with treats from here!”

Santa smiled jovially; such a nice girl. No wonder she seemed nervous; anyone would be when trying to not get caught preparing a surprise! “Well, come along then, I’ll get the elves to pack you a big batch!”

After some casual conversation and packing Kairi a nice big box of cookies and a couple jugs of hot chocolate, Kairi mentioned that she really had to be going on her way so as not to be late to the party. Santa could understand that—she was bringing the hot chocolate and cookies for it, after all! He bid the girl farewell with a large smile, and she gave a big smile in return. Such a nice girl.

After she left, Santa realized that he had forgotten to ask her why the Naughty List wouldn’t tell him why she was on it. Well, that was okay; clearly it must be a technical error. She was such a nice girl, after all. He’d find out how to fix it.

Barely ten minutes later, a couple of elves burst into Santa’s office, out of breath, practically dragging in a third.

“Santa! It’s horrible!” the first one, Dippy, said in a whiny, panicked voice.

The second, Blinky, was just as panicked. “Absolutely terrible!”

Santa maintained a calm demeanor despite a growing sense of dread. “What is it that is so horrible and terrible? Has someone from Halloween Town gotten in again?” Usually that was the case.

“No no no!” Dippy said. “Hippy here knows more about it, she can tell you.” 

Instead of explaining, the third elf burst into tears.

“There there, it’s okay, take your time,” Santa said, while Blinky tried comforting Hippy by rubbing her back.

“I’m a bad elf!” Hippy finally stammered through tears. “He’s m-my husband! I sh-should be upset he’s d-dead! But I-I’m happy!” she began wailing louder.

Blinky froze and slowly moved away from her, clearly horrified, and Dippy’s eyes widened in shock. Obviously this was new information for them.

“Now, why would you say that?” Santa asked, trying to recall just who her husband was. He didn’t recall any funerals recently, although he did have thousands of elves working for him.

“Because of this!” the frantic elf pulled up her shirt, revealing deep bruising. “He did this! He did this so often!” she dropped her shirt. “And other horrible things! So I was happy when I walked in on the girl killing him! I didn’t try to stop her! Instead I ran! I should feel bad about that, but I don’t!”

After Hippy had calmed down, Santa spoke, an immense sense of dread in his chest. “Okay, firstly, emotions are complex things; you don’t have to be upset because someone is dead, especially if they hurt you, regardless of relation. Secondly, when did this happen, and who was the assailant?”

“About an hour ago,” Dippy replied diligently, when the girl didn’t answer. “Hippy didn’t tell anyone right away; she was too traumatized.”

Blinky continued. “She said it was a human girl with shoulder-length red hair.”

Santa had to take a moment to process this. The girl undoubtedly was Kairi—it was hard to believe, but a Princess of Light had become a murderer. Premeditated, at that. She had no remorse at all, either; right after, Santa had met with her, and she’d been perfectly happy, albeit slightly nervous about something. Well, this was that something, not the surprise party, of which the girl most likely lied about too.

Once the elves left to go sort things out with the crime scene, and one of Hippy’s friends came to pick her up, Santa pondered on the events more. His gaze shifted to a small scroll on his desk, sent to him from a king in a distant land, warning him of the possibility of a group of world-hopping vigilantes. Now Santa knew who they were… not that he could tell anyone, though. Thanks to the magical confidentiality agreement that came from keeping the Lists, he could not reveal why or why not someone was on the Naughty List except to that person, even if he was privy to undiscovered crimes the person committed.

But… the elf she had killed had at least one crime to answer for too—he had been actively abusing his spouse. Santa was conflicted. According to the Naughty List, murder was bad regardless of reason… but if it saved someone from living in such horrid circumstances… oh, Santa was too old for this. He grabbed his jacket and headed to the nearby tavern for some very strong eggnog.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 534, early afternoon;  
212 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, kitchen;  
POV Roxas**

“And just what are you two doing?” Yen Sid asked, arms crossed as he stood imposingly at the entrance of the Mysterious Tower’s kitchen, where Sora and Roxas had been attempting to bake some sweets, ‘attempting’ being the key word.

“We’re just baking cookies,” Roxas said innocently through the somewhat thick sweet-smelling smoke. He wiped some flour off his cheek as Sora tried to subtly slip a joint into the drawer behind him. The smoke smelled sweet because they were using some special plants that Roxas had taken from one of his marks—hey, the girl wasn’t going to use it anymore! Unfortunately, they’d burned the butter, setting off the smoke alarm, which must have alerted Yen Sid even though they managed to turn it off rather quickly.

“Cookies,” Yen Sid said flatly.

“Yup!” Sora chimed. “Not much else to do around here.” 

“Oh? Did I not give you enough reading material?” Yen Sid asked, though he clearly knew he definitely had. Roxas tried suppressing a groan; didn’t the wizard realize they couldn’t read for sixteen hours a day? ...Well, maybe Riku could. That’s what he was doing now. But Sora and Roxas needed breaks to stay sane!

Sora voiced this. “Come on! We can’t sit still that long! You took away keyblade training; at least give us this!”

Yen Sid did not falter. “I may be old, but I am not naïve. I know that cookies do not involve plants simmering in butter, and that smoke does not usually smell like that.”

Roxas cringed. He knew Yen Sid’s stance on drugs—it was the exact opposite of Merlin’s, and the reason why Yen Sid no longer permitted the keyblade wielders to train with Merlin, who had been growing certain plants in the training forest and doing the opposite of discouraging their use.

“It doesn’t?” Sora asked, putting on his best expression of innocence. 

“No, it does not. Now, you will hand it over, and go straight back to reading.”

“Can’t we finish the cookies first?” Roxas asked. “We won’t use the butter, swear!”

Yen Sid glared at the two, and Roxas shriveled at the sight. Yen Sid rarely dropped his stoic demeanor, and now Roxas was glad for it; Roxas had never seen such a stern look on anyone! “Roxas. Sora. You will do as I say,” he said firmly, with a no-nonsense edge to his voice.

Sora, however, seemed to either be made of tougher stuff or had faced The Glare before. That, or he was just oblivious to the tension in the room; Roxas could believe any of those things. Sora looked away, but still tried to resist. “We used it all in the recipe,” he claimed.

Yen Sid’s glare deepened. “Sora. Lying does not become a keyblade wielder.”

“I’m being—”

“There is smoke coming from the drawer you threw that joint in earlier,” Yen Sid pointed out.

Sora squeaked and turned around, opening the drawer. A flame flared from it. Roxas winced; the drawer had been filled with matches, birthday candles, paper plates, and napkins. Had been, not anymore. Now it was just fire.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 534, mid afternoon;  
211 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, library;  
POV Riku**

Riku, lounging sideways on the chintz couch in the library, turned a page of the ancient book he was reading. He had to admit, it was nice to get a chance to relax, even if it was due to being essentially grounded. He’d definitely rather be doing this than murdering people. The books were extremely interesting, albeit dense; it was no wonder Sora and Roxas had abandoned them to take a break. Sora had never been good at paying attention to dense books, even when on interesting topics—he was more of a kinetic learner rather than a book learner. Apparently Roxas had inherited that from him. Riku wondered what the two had run off to do; Yen Sid would be angry if he caught them goofing off again. The previous day, the two had tried to use magic to make the broom servants dance for them, but instead the brooms waged war on the mops with the swiffer refereeing. As a result, the two had been forced to spend the afternoon doing all the chores the objects would normally do on their own while Yen Sid fixed them.

Speaking of, Sora and Roxas entered the library at that moment; both looked very unhappy as they flopped down onto the couch, Sora on top of Riku’s legs. The brunette immediately made his demon appendages appear and began playing with Riku’s hair with the tail. Which, considering the tip was a dangerously pointed spur, was a little nerve-wracking, but there was something incredibly enthralling about it too… ah, shit. Riku took a deep breath to calm himself before his body reacted too much. Wait. Something was off… 

Riku sniffed the air. “Why do you two smell like smoke?”

Sora sighed. “We tried to bake cookies using weed and burned them.”

Riku whistled. “Ouch. Good thing you didn’t spend money on it.”

“I guess that’s true,” Roxas conceded. “Yen Sid caught us though.”

Sora explained the punishment. “He says we have to clean the whole kitchen once we’re not high anymore, because when we started to the first time we accidentally tried using fire magic instead of water magic to wash the floors.”

Riku chuckled. “Good luck with that. Next time, don’t burn stuff.”

Sora leaned back so he was looking at the ceiling. “Yeah… ugh. I am not looking forward to cleaning the kitchen!”

“I have a solution to that!” Roxas said happily. Too happily for the conversation; how much had the two smoked?

“What is it?” Sora asked. Riku was curious too.

Roxas had a dangerous glint to his eye. “We just… don’t come down.”

Riku raised his eyebrows. “Are you serious?”

“Of course! He says we have to clean it when we’re not high anymore, so all we have to do is never not be high, so we’ll never have to clean it!” Roxas looked proud of this plan.

Sora tilted his head. “But we’re out of weed.”

Roxas’s face blossomed into a cheshire grin as he slipped a small baggie out of his pocket and held it up. “Who says we have to use weed?”

Sora clapped his hands and giggled. “Roxy, that's a brilliant idea! Riku, you in?”

Riku frowned slightly in thought. “I dunno…” They were supposed to be reading.

“Please, Riku?” Sora begged, rolling so he was lying with his forearms on Riku’s chest. Riku looked away, anticipating the irresistible puppy-dog eyes. The brunette placed his tail under Riku’s chin, using it to force Riku to look into the magical eyes, which Riku was instantly captivated by. Sora’s face was close enough to kiss… but Riku would refrain. There was no way to know for certain if Sora felt the same way; yeah, Sora acted flirtatious and was overly affectionate with Riku, but it was possible Sora didn’t know how it came across when he did things like sit in Riku’s lap with his arms around his neck or caress Riku’s cheek with that alluring tail. So, Riku would wait for Sora to say something first.

“Sure, why not?” Riku decided. He supposed he could use a break from reading, too… He sighed fondly at Sora; he couldn’t deny the boy anything, could he?

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 534, late afternoon;  
210 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower;  
POV Mickey**

Later that same day, Mickey arrived at the Mysterious Tower to speak to Yen Sid and see how the boys were holding up. They’d probably still be mad at Mickey, or at least Roxas would be. Riku, though unhappy, had seemed understanding of the decision to hold them, and Sora easily forgave. Mickey expected to find them in the library studying, as that’s what Yen Sid had instructed them to do that week. 

However, the boys were not in the library. Strange. So Mickey trekked up the stairs further, seeing if they were in their bedrooms. Nope. Maybe the kitchen? It was quite a mess and smelled strange, but no boys. Well, he’d go see Yen Sid then; maybe he’d know where the boys were.

Mickey headed up the stairs towards the office, only to find Yen Sid locking a room with voices shouting from it.

“Master, what’s going on?” Mickey asked worriedly. “Are the boys in there?”

Yen Sid was clearly trying to smooth his stern, angry expression, but with much difficulty. “Yes they are,” he said tersely. “And in there they will remain until they are of sound mind.” He sighed, looking suddenly tired. “We need to search their rooms, I suppose. I’ve confiscated what was on them, but there’s a chance they have more…”

Mickey blinked in bafflement. “More? More what?”

“I do not know where they acquired them, but…” Yen Sid explained the entire incident, Mickey’s shock and bafflement only growing as it went on. He finished with, “So I put them in a windowless empty room until they stop hallucinating.”

Then, the two proceeded to search the boys’ rooms, each taking one.

Once they were finished, the two reconveined. Yen Sid revealed that he discovered quite a few mind-altering substances in Roxas’s room. Mickey, on the other hand, had discovered that Sora and Riku had apparently been sleeping in the same bed, since although they shared a room Sora’s bed was clearly unused. Was it innocent, or in addition to drugs did they need to speak to Sora and Riku about something else that teens probably should not be doing? Mickey couldn’t stop them—after all, he wasn’t their parent and the boys were technically both of-age—but he could at least remind them to use protection...

For Guardians of Light, those kids were quite the hooligans.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 537, morning;  
206 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Sora**

A few days after the incident involving the substances that Yen Sid disliked but Merlin enjoyed and encouraged, Riku, Sora, and Roxas found themselves once again in a meeting with Yen Sid and Mickey.

Yen Sid got straight to the point. “Ienzo has discovered evidence that darkness was used in all the attacks, and the statistics show that there has been no notable decline in suspicious deaths.”

Sora inwardly sighed; that meant the others had been able to make up for the fact that the three of them had been out of decommission for the week. Although, how? Had Kairi and Naminé joined in? The third would be Ven, who hadn't done much yet. But, wait. Ienzo said there had been darkness? Interesting. Had the others managed to rope him in after Roxas kidnapped him?

“Sora, are you paying attention?”

Sora gave a start, turning his attention back to Yen Sid. He hadn’t heard a word of what he’d said after the decline of deaths. “Sorry, Master!”

“I was asking if you’d seen any signs of darkness from any of the other wielders.”

Sora looked slightly confused. “Wouldn’t Riku be better able to assess that?” He could control darkness after all.

“Yeah, I haven’t sensed anything unusual,” Riku informed them.

Mickey replied to that. “Yes but Sora’s heart is connected to most of the others in some way or another. He should be able to tell the best if something is off with them—we can all sense large amounts, but this may be more subtle.”

“Oh,” Sora said. “Well, I haven’t noticed anything unusual.” Sora wasn’t even sure if he would notice, though. Honestly he wasn’t sure how no one had noticed the extra amount in himself in the first place—reapers were inherently beings of darkness. Or maybe they had noticed the darkness, but realized that about reapers so they hadn’t said anything. Maybe that had been one reason Ven had been thrown off initially? He should ask. Oh, but wait, wouldn’t the Masters sense it in such large amounts? Weird. Maybe reaper darkness couldn’t be sensed in the same way.

Yen Sid nodded. “Very well. So then we must have a new dark group out there.”

“I will send a missive out telling everyone to be on the lookout for them,” Mickey stated.

Sora looked subtly towards Roxas, then Riku. From the knowing looks they returned, Sora realized they were on the same page as him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up:   
> -What is it the boys have planned?  
> -The Masters hold another meeting.  
> -Xion and Ventus are captured by pirates!
> 
> Expect it most likely Monday 12/14 or Tuesday 12/15!


	7. It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Masters think there's a new evil group, so Sora's going to give them a new evil group!
> 
> Also, pirates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favorite sections to write! It's on the longer end, clocking in at roughly 5500 words. It switches between lots of POVs, so pay attention to the headings to make sure you don't get confused.

**Day 537, evening;  
204 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Sora**

Sora grinned at the others in the base as he walked in carrying a large paper bag full of fabric. He had called a meeting with the entire group (minus Ienzo, who was in his lab; Xion had explained to Sora all about how they’d recruited him, although he wouldn’t be actually killing, only managing evidence. She also explained how Kairi and Naminé had helped kill people—including an elf—to Sora’s shock) shortly after Xion had picked the boys up from the Tower, making sure they'd be there when they returned.

“That’s a dangerous look,” Lea commented, though he was grinning too.

Sora gave Lea a wink as he placed the bag on the table. Roxas, Riku, and Xion followed him, also carrying bags.

“What is all that?” Ventus asked, holding Chirithy like a teddy bear as usual.

“These,” Sora explained, “Are our new costumes.”

Lea raised an eyebrow. “Costumes? What, are we superheroes now?”

“Well,” Xion clarified, “not costumes yet. Only fabric and sewing supplies for now. And they’ll probably only be hooded cloaks, not full costumes.”

“Aww, Xion,” Sora said, disappointed.

Xion turned to Sora. “I told you, full costumes will take too much time and munny.”

“But we have more than enough munny,” Roxas pointed out, and Sora nodded. They often took munny from their marks, especially the super rich ones like mob bosses; after all, they weren’t going to miss it. 

“Okay, fine. But we still lack the time. Cloaks will be enough.”

“So, why are we getting cloaks, then?” Lea wondered.

“You want to throw them off our trail,” Naminé guessed.

Sora nodded, grinning so large his fangs showed. “Yup! If they think there’s a new evil group out there, we’re going to give them a new evil group!”

"Sounds good to me," Kairi said, munching on what looked like an iced Christmas cookie. She noticed Sora eyeing it and slid a tin of them across the table. Sora wondered where she'd gotten them as he selected a chocolate reindeer one. Chirithy wiggled out of Ventus's arms and hopped onto the table for a cookie too.

“But we can't have everyone sighted at once,” Riku pointed out. “And we wait a week. Otherwise they’ll find the sudden change suspicious again.”

“Well, it’ll take time to make the cloaks, anyway,” Kairi pointed out. “Naminé and I can do that from here while managing the base and doing research,” she offered. Good; Sora had been going to request the two do that.

“Do you have a style in mind?” Naminé wondered.

Sora shook his head. “Not really. It’ll need something to hide our face at the very least; the Organization’s worked well, but if we use those they’ll probably freak out thinking Xehanort came back or something.”

“So you decided on crimson?” Ventus noted, pawing through one of the two bags of fabric. The third bag had sewing supplies.

“Yup! Seems like a pretty evil color, right?”

Lea laughed. “I dunno, reminds me more of what a vampire would wear.”

“Well, Sora does have the fangs for it,” Kairi pointed out.

“Oh! So we can pretend to be vampires then?” Xion asked excitedly. “Anyone know any teeth-transformation magic? Or should we just file them down?” Sora was fine with this; vampires were cool. And if people thought they were vampires, there was no way they’d suspect anyone from the group again.

“No one is filing down their teeth,” Riku said firmly, the voice of reason in the group.

“But—” Sora began.

Riku interrupted, grinning. “There’s a costume store down the street that probably sells fake ones.”

Sora clapped his hands together once. “Yes! That’s it! I’ll go get—” Roxas grabbed Sora’s wrist as he began to run, eliciting a squeak from Sora. “Hey, what gives, Roxas?”

“We can’t get them here; it’s too close to the base. We’ll get them from different stores in different worlds,” Roxas reasoned. Sora nodded; it made perfect sense.

“Wait,” Naminé said. “Before any of you do anything, we need to take your measurements. Please remove your shirts and pants.”

The whole group stared at her in shock and embarrassment, except Kairi. “Do you want new outfits or not? Because we can’t make new outfits without knowing measurements!” the redhead said firmly. “Now, clothes off!”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 543, morning;  
189 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

“Oh my god, these are amazing!” Xion gushed as Kairi held up the new hooded… sleeveless waistcoats?

“Yesss! I knew you’d come through for us!” Sora cheered, nearly tackling the girls in a double-hug. 

Riku chuckled at the display. Typical Sora. The coat itself though… hmm. Riku wasn’t sure how he felt about them. They were certainly cute… but on himself? And for an evil organization? “Why does it have ears and a tail?” Riku enquired. “Aren’t they a bit conspicuous?”

Kairi held a coat out, examining it with an exaggerated frown. “Well, now that you point it out, maybe it is a bit obvious…” she laughed.

“Isn’t that the point, though?” Lea asked. “We want them to notice there’s a new group.”

Ventus frowned. “Yeah, but subtly. These are… cute, but a cat?”

Naminé giggled. “Okay, okay, enough joking, Kairi. That’s just something I made for Kairi with the extra fabric," she informed them. "Here’s the actual design.” Naminé pulled over a pile of crimson garments and held one up. It was much more appropriate for an evil organization.

Sora grabbed one and put it on. “Ooh, I like it!” he said, twirling around; the bottom flared out slightly due to not being closed below the waist. The cloak was a similar style to the one the Organization had, but instead of thick black leather it was a lightweight dark crimson cotton with silver trim around the hood, cuffs, and bottom. Instead of a zipper it was a more open style that used clasps along the chest, which made them much easier to remove quickly—if they wore magical clothing underneath, they could easily slip the cloak off and immediately send it into the pocket dimension magical pockets sent things to, providing for an easy escape. They’d decided to ditch the fangs, as those were too much of a hassle.

“Hey, what’s that symbol on the back?” Riku asked.

“Oh! It’s a design Kairi and I came up with!” Naminé explained excitedly. “It combines the heartless and nobody symbols. That way when they see it they’ll instantly think evil!”

“Sweet!” Ventus exclaimed, then looked pensieve. “But both of those were Xehanort’s designs. Do you think combining them will make them think he’s back?”

Naminé gasped. “Oh my! I hadn’t even thought of that!”

Sora shrugged. “Eh, it’ll be fine. If they do think it’s him, that only gives them even less reason to suspect us, right?”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 574, morning;  
84 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Riku**

Riku took a deep breath before entering the meeting room; it was just the Masters meeting again (Yen Sid, Mickey, Aqua, Terra, and Riku. Oh, and Donald and Goofy too. Ven would not be tagging along this time—he was in the middle of killing some people, although Aqua and Terra thought he was enjoying spending the day with Sora… which could be possible, Riku supposed, as Ventus—just like Xion—now seemed a bit too happy about helping kill people, despite supposedly being all light). This was the moment of truth. It had been a month since they’d started weathering the cloaks intermittently; they’d let people see about a dozen times, once even on video camera.

Riku had been the last to arrive; once he was seated, Mickey brought out a small piece of paper and spoke. “I have here a photo that a video camera caught of someone we believe to be in the new group.” He handed it to Aqua next to him to pass it around. “Especially suspicious is the insignia that appears to be on the back of it. Note that it appears to combine the heartless and nobody symbols.”

Riku frowned. “You’re not suggesting Xehanort managed to come back again, are you?” Having them think that would definitely draw their suspicions away from any in their group, but Riku had to wonder if that was going too far; people thinking Xehanort had returned would cause significant mass panic.

Yen Sid nodded. “It is not outside the realm of possibility, especially since some of those fighting for him were still Nobodies at the time. Even if not him anymore, they may have decided to continue his work once they were recompleted.”

“Should we watch the other former nobodies then?” Aqua suggested. “Aeleus, Ienzo, and Even?”

“No, I don’t think that’s needed,” Mickey said. “One of them was killed by the group, after all. If they were in on it, surely they wouldn’t have been targeted.”

“True,” Riku agreed, even though he knew that to be far from the truth. Xehanort and the Organization had been extremely willing to go after each other, if Castle Oblivion had been any indication.

Terra frowned at Riku. “No, it isn’t true. They have no qualms about taking each other out to further the purpose of the whole. You know that.” Riku cringed; he had forgotten Terra was very intimate with Xehanort and the Organization’s methods too. Terra continued. “You witnessed that whole mess at Castle Oblivion. You watched Axel assassinate Vexen for the sole purpose of figuring out who the actual traitors were. He had nothing to do with the coup.”

“I, uh, forgot about that,” Riku sputtered, hoping they believed that.

“There was a coup?” Aqua asked. “Wait, weren’t they supposed to be all Xehanort?”

“That was the second Organization,” Terra explained. “We’re talking about the first version. Part of the reason it didn’t work out was because of infighting—it’s why Xehanort decided to give everyone his heart, hoping that it’d prevent such, which it still didn’t.”

“Could we get back on track?” Donald interrupted. “I say we watch them!”

“But they helped us a lot,” Goofy pointed out.

As they argued, Riku’s GummiPhone buzzed once. A message. He subtly slipped out his phone to check, then paled. He tried not to react any more than that, though he desperately wished for the meeting to end. The message was from Sora to the group, informing him that Xion and Ventus had been captured… by pirates, of all things. Riku quickly texted back, asking if he should notify the other Masters or if they should try to handle this themselves, and if the former what should they be told. The initial reason they’d gone there had been reconnaissance, as they had a couple significant hits there, including a captain of the Royal Navy, which would take strategy to kill… wait. Then why had a pirate ship captured them? Riku sent a text asking that, too. Sora replied to that first, claiming they’d stolen some provisions. Then he said that they might as well tell the other Masters, because the pirate ship had taken off and they had no clue where it went, so it might take a while to find them. Riku could tell them it had been a simple day trip for fun.

“Riku? Is everything okay?” Mickey asked worriedly.

Riku shook his head. “No. Sora just messaged me; apparently he and few of the others decided to go to the Caribbean, and Xion and Ven got themselves captured by pirates.”

Everyone stared at Riku blankly for a moment, processing this.

“Did you say pirates?” Terra finally asked. “Ven got captured by… pirates?”

Aqua gasped. “Ven! We need to save him!”

“Who else went there with them?” Mickey asked sharply.

“Umm. Just Sora, I think?” Riku said. “Maybe Roxas, too.” Kairi and Naminé were at the base as usual, and Lea was off on a world called Prydain to take out a king. Riku knew Port Royal had a few easier hits, and it was easier to get away with killing there, so it was possible Roxas went along to do that while the others planned for the big hits. He knew the blonde had been considering it at least.

“Wak!” Donald squawked. “Sora could be in trouble then!”

Riku looked at the duck, unamused. Really? “Sora can handle himself,” Riku pointed out. “He’s the one one who messaged me. It’s Xion and Ven we need to help.”

“But Sora might do something reckless!” the duck argued. “Especially if Roxas is with him!”

Riku shook his head. “Maybe the Sora of a few years ago would have, but he’s grown. He’ll wait for us if I tell him to.”

Donald opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, seeming unsure how to proceed because of how true that was. Even though he often didn’t listen to others, Sora would do anything if Riku asked him to. Mickey chuckled at the display.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 574, afternoon;  
83 Remaining;   
Port Royal, Leviathan;  
POV Roxas**

“Why don’t we just start looking for them?” Roxas asked, watching Sora pace back and forth on the bridge of his ship, named the Leviathan, which was currently docked at Port Royal. How Sora had managed to charm a sea goddess into giving him an entire ship still baffled Roxas, and he’d technically been there. Why the Royal Navy seemed to be completely ignoring what unabashedly was a pirate ship with only two teenagers clearly dressed as pirates on it probably had to do with that as well.

“Because Riku asked me to wait!” Sora muttered, and Roxas rolled his eyes. If Riku asked Sora to leap off a cliff (or whatever the equivalent was for someone who had magic that allowed one to survive such with ease), Roxas was sure Sora would do so. That kind of absolute obedience must be unhealthy.

“Speak of the devil,” Roxas muttered, spotting a group headed their way. A much larger group than anticipated. Roxas had expected Aqua and Terra to insist on coming along too, but why did he bring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy along too?

“Y’know, I’m closer to the devil than Riku is, reaper and all,” Sora joked, hands on the back of his neck and beaming in that goofy way of his as he turned to where Roxas had gestured. 

Once the group had gotten to the pier, Roxas watched as Sora darted off the ship and basically crashed into Riku, wrapping his arms around the silverette and giving him a deep kiss. Riku froze for a second, then practically melted as he eagerly returned the affectionate gesture. Huh. That was new. Well, the public kissing bit; Roxas was certain they did it in private by the way they practically were attached. Sora then quickly moved on to the others, greeting them all with hugs before they ascended the gangplank.

Roxas pulled Riku aside by the wrist as he passed by. He grinned and said “Well, that’s new. Finally decided to stop hiding?”

Riku’s face turned bright red. “That was, er, the first time he did that…”

Roxas raised his eyebrows. “Wait, what? That was your first kiss?” There was no way. Not with how the two acted. Sora had said months ago that Riku was so oblivious he’d have to kiss the guy before he realized things, but the two were so flirtatious and affectionate now that Roxas assumed that’d been resolved already.

“Yep.”

Roxas furrowed his eyebrows. “You two haven’t talked about this yet? But, you two sleep in the same bed, and are overly affectionate. From the way you two act you might as well already be married.” Well, technically Sora didn’t sleep, just cuddled Riku while he slept—which was actually more intimate.

Riku shrugged. “I know the feelings are obvious, but I was waiting for him to say something first. Which I guess he did with that.”

Roxas looked at Riku in disbelief. “You knew, yet didn’t say anything.”

“Well, you know how Sora is. On the off-chance I was misinterpreting things, and I asked him out, he might say yes so he didn’t hurt my feelings,” the silverette reasoned.

Roxas had to concede that point. “Not, might,” he corrected Riku. “Sora undoubtedly would do that.” Although at this point that off-chance was virtually nonexistent; Roxas was 99.9% sure that Sora was 100% aware of Riku’s feelings and had been playing the same waiting game, the idiot. The brunette’s affectionate gestures had gotten bolder and bolder by the day; Riku was an idiot to even entertain the idea that Sora felt anything other than love—and a ridiculous amount of lust—for him. 

Riku nodded. “I better go talk to him about that now, actually,” he decided, and turned to leave.

“Wait,” Roxas said, grabbing Riku’s wrist. Riku looked at Roxas curiously. Roxas asked, “What’s with the huge entourage?”

Riku sighed. “All of them insisted on following,” he explained. “I tried to stop them. Aqua and Terra were going no matter what, but I never thought the other three would be so adamant too.”

Roxas frowned and crossed his arms. “I’m going to head back to base then,” he decided. “We’re already down Ven and Xion, and now we’re going to be down Sora and you…”

Riku’s eyes widened in panic. “Fuck, that’s right! There’ll be a significant reduction, even if Kairi and Naminé help again! Xion—”

Roxas put a hand over Riku’s mouth. “Shh! Do you want them to hear? Yes, Xion being gone is a huge liability.” Xion was their most efficient killer, even better than Sora now; Kairi and Naminé combined would barely be able to make up for her portion. “So I have to go back. Maybe we can remedy this somehow.”

“I’ll go too,” Riku said resolutely. 

Roxas shook his head. “No, you need to stay here. Sora’s probably going to be extremely anxious about all this; last thing we need is him fretting so much the wings appear—or worse, rage-form.”

“Thanks for the note of faith,” said a voice next to Roxas’s ear. Roxas jumped away, seeing nothing next to him.

“Oh, very funny, Sora,” Roxas grumbled, realizing the situation. “So, how long were you listening?”

Sora smiled. “Not long. But, er…” Sora’s expression turned sheepish. “You’re actually probably right about the anxious bit.”

Roxas raised his eyebrows; he never expected Sora to admit that so easily. He knew Sora had been showing and acknowledging his more negative emotions more often than he used to, but had assumed that was simply an after effect of pretending to be Vanitas. Maybe it was more—

“Yes, I’m being more open with and accepting of my emotions, shocking, I know,” Sora said flatly, accurately reading Roxas’s expression. “Turned out locking them away until they burst out all at once in the form of a dark cloak was a bit too compatible with the reaper bits… remember how a mysterious gas explosion took out an office building that conveniently had a few of our marks, along with dozens of others? Yeah, that was actually me. Thankfully Riku felt it through our link, and showed up quickly to talk me down… after that, well. I learned my lesson about suppressing negative emotions.”

Roxas whistled. “Wow. Remind me not to get on your bad side,” he teased, although he had been on the receiving end of rage-form before. Roxas was also mildly concerned that he hadn’t felt anything upon hearing that apparently dozens of innocents had been killed, and neither Sora nor Riku reacted either. Had they all really become so comfortable with death and murder that it felt like nothing? Roxas wondered how their younger selves would react to discovering they were killing so many people. Well, Sora’s younger self, at least. Roxas’s younger self had mostly learned right and wrong via the Organization, who weren’t exactly stellar moral teachers—if they'd learned that a vague sense of morals had carried over from Sora, they'd have stomped it out. 

“Whatcha thinking about, Roxas?” Sora asked, right in Roxas’s face. 

Roxas backed up a step in surprise. “I, uh, what?”

“You spaced out!” Sora said cheerfully.

“Oh. I was just kinda wondering what our younger selves would have thought if they knew what we were doing now…” he admitted somberly.

Riku and Sora both looked down guiltily, they and Roxas all sobered by the thought.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 577, afternoon;  
79 Remaining;   
Open sea, Leviathan;  
POV Aqua**

Aqua scanned the ocean from atop the crow’s nest of Sora’s ship, foot tapping an anxious rhythm. No sign of Ven… was her Wayfinder not working properly? She’d told everyone she was certain this was the direction they were in, and Terra confirmed that his heart felt such too, but it had been three days already! Why was this world so large? Aqua couldn’t lose Ven again… he must be locked up or bound, since otherwise he’d have found his way back to them. If he could have gotten outside, he could have used his glider, after all... Wait. Was that? Yes! A ship! Aqua held up a small spyglass, looking through. Well, that certainly was a pirate ship… and it was attacking another ship, whose flag looked similar to the ones she’d seen in port. “Hey, Sora, get up here!” Aqua called down.

Sora used air magic to ascend to the crow’s nest in just a few jumps. Aqua wondered how much influence Ven had had on Sora when it came to developing abilities, or if it were just a coincidence that they both excelled at air-element things. “What’s up?” Sora asked.

Aqua handed Sora the spyglass. “There are two ships engaged in battle over there; one has a pirate flag, but the other looks a bit more dignified and resembles some I saw in port, flag too. I’m wondering if it’s some sort of governmental—”

“Yes, that’s the Royal Navy’s insignia,” Sora confirmed before Aqua could finish. Was it her imagination, or did Sora sound nervous? “We’ll need to be extra careful. They arrest pirates on sight, and they’ll probably assume we’ve come to help the other ship, so will attack us too.” Well, that explained the nervousness. “Let’s wait a bit, see what happens with the battle. I’ll draw us a little closer in; you keep watching those ships, okay?”

Aqua nodded. “Got it.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 577, afternoon;  
78 Remaining;   
Open sea, Leviathan;  
POV Riku**

Riku stepped next to Sora, who was standing at the bow of the ship with a spyglass. Mickey currently was in charge of sailing the ship, which was floating just far enough away from the battle to watch without being attacked. “Hey, you okay? You look tense,” Riku commented, putting a arm around Sora’s shoulder.

“You have no idea,” Sora hissed. He looked around, and seeing it was just them, continued. “That Navy ship is the Interceptor—the one our big mark is Captain of.”

Riku looked at Sora, confused. “Isn’t that good though? It looks like they’re losing, so—”

“It’s not just that,” Sora interrupted quickly. “I’m sure Aqua will notice soon, too; the two people who appear to be commanding the pirate ship are wearing crimson cloaks, and are augmenting the ship’s attacks and defenses with magic.”

Riku paled. “You think it’s…?”

Sora nodded. “I know it’s them. They went somewhere out of sight, but it’s only a matter of time before they come out again.”

Riku thought about what that meant. Clearly, Xion and Ventus had overpowered their captors and taken the ship. Had they coincidentally run into the Interceptor, or sought it out? Either way, as soon as they got closer, the others would realize. What could they do? “I assume you’ve tried calling them again?”

Sora nodded. “Right to voicemail. I think they might have lost their phones in the scuffle.”

Riku bit his lip. “As soon as the others notice, they’re going to think Xion and Ven were captured by the new Organization—”

“And when they rush in to rescue them,” Sora continued, “they’ll find out it is them. Even if they get the cloaks off, the lack of any of the crew wearing them will clue them in… and I’m sure that crew isn’t exactly loyal, so killing and putting the cloaks on a couple of them is out, not unless they kill the whole crew… not that I’d want to resort to killing if avoidable!” Sora said in a rush. “Besides, they probably killed the captain or something already.”

Riku frowned, weighing the options. “We need to flee.”

“What?”

“Once they defeat the Navy vessel and ours approaches, we’re going to disable this ship and flee to theirs. From there, we can glide out.”

“But the others have keyblade gliders too,” Sora pointed out. “Also, the ship turns to crabs when I’m not on this world, so no need to disable it.”

Riku paused a beat. Crabs? Riku decided not to question it; their lives were so weird that even that made sense. “Okay, so no disabling needed. As to the glider issue…”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 577, afternoon;  
78 Remaining;   
Open seas, Leviathan;  
POV Mickey**

Mickey frowned as he steered the ship. It looked like Sora and Riku were having some sort of whispered secret meeting at the bow, occasionally glimpsing at the battle as though they knew something about it that they weren’t sharing with everyone. What could they be talking about? Something was very fishy. The two had been cleared of suspicion, so why was Mickey still feeling suspicious about them? They were his friends! He trusted them with his life. So why the uneasy feeling…?

Mickey jumped slightly as his GummiPhone rang. Mickey quickly answered it to see Aeleus on the screen. “Oh! Didn’t expect you to be calling,” Mickey said. “Do you have new information?”

Aeleus looked away, and Mickey noticed that he looked extremely stressed. “It’s… Ienzo…”

Mickey gasped. “Oh no! Did something happen to him, too?”

Aeleus sighed. “No, he’s uninjured. But I caught him tampering with evidence.”

Mickey was sure his mouth was hanging open. Beside him, Donald and Goofy, who had shuffled over at Mickey’s gasp, had similar looks of surprise. Of all the former Organization to betray them, Ienzo was the last one they’d expect!

“What’s wrong?” asked Terra. He had been at the canons in case they were needed, but upon seeing their expressions had hurried over.

“Ienzo was caught tampering with evidence. He’s in on it,” Mickey explained. “Where is he now?” Mickey asked into the phone.

“I have him locked in one of the old cells,” Aeleus informed them. “I will talk with him, see if I can get any information from him. I thought I would let you know, first. You know this means anything we discovered is now suspect. We can no longer rule out anyone until we ascertain how much of the data has been tampered with.”

“Is it possible to find out?” Mickey enquired.

Aeleus nodded. “Yes, but it will take much time. It’ll be easier to rerun any tests we can, although that too will take some time. Hopefully, Ienzo will talk.”

“IT’S THEM!” Aqua suddenly called from the crow’s nest, and everyone looked towards her. “THE CRIMSON CLOAKS!”

At the same moment, a large explosion came from the battle, and the Navy ship began to sink into the sea. Some of the crew attempted to flee, but a tornado spell as well as a laser rain prevented such, and thus the entire ship and crew sunk into a watery grave. Aqua froze in shock, and Terra fell to his knees. Mickey understood why: those spells were unique to Ventus and Xion, and had been cast by the two relatively short figures wearing crimson cloaks standing at the helm of the pirate ship. 

Mickey steeled himself and started steering their ship towards the pirate ship. “Keep an eye on those two,” Mickey commanded Donald and Goofy, gesturing to Sora and Riku at the bow, whose reaction seemed odd. They’d cringed, but didn’t seem as surprised as they should be. If it were someone else, Mickey could have contributed it to not realizing it was specifically those two, but there was zero doubt they wouldn’t have recognized those attacks.

Goofy blinked at Mickey. “Gawrsh. Why would you want us to do that? They can handle themselves, don’tcha think?” Donald looked confused too.

Mickey realized that neither had caught onto the situation. “The two in the cloaks are undoubtedly Ventus and Xion—those attacks are unique to them. We’ll have to capture them, and those two might have trouble with that.” He didn’t want to voice his suspicion that maybe—well, honestly, most likely—the two were involved in the murders after all, although it was odd Sora had asked for help if they weren’t actually captured. Maybe they had been, then staged a coup? Obviously something bigger was going on here, and Mickey had nowhere near the full picture.

Donald and Goofy looked shocked, but quickly ran over to the two teens, who stopped whispering as soon as they approached. Yes, they were acting awfully suspicious… 

Sora said something, and then grabbed Riku’s cheeks and pulled him down into a passionate kiss (it was about time!) before heading inside the ship. Mickey wondered if he should have someone follow, but Donald seemed to have the idea and followed him.

They were awfully close to the other ship now, which had turned to face them. Xion and Ventus, still hiding their faces, were clearly watching them… no, watching Riku, who seemed to be signaling something to them. Mickey's uneasy feeling grew exponentially.

Where was Aqua? She should be down now; surely she wasn’t still frozen in—Mickey gasped as he looked up. Aqua was slumped over, clearly unconscious. 

BOOM. An explosion sounded from somewhere below them. Mickey grabbed onto the wheel to steady himself from the boat’s shaking. What was that? Down below was where Sora and Donald were; were they okay? 

Once Mickey had reoriented himself, he looked towards the bow, where he saw Riku standing with his keyblade over an unconscious Goofy, clearly having been the one to attack the dog. He caught Mickey’s eye and mouthed “I’m sorry” before he leapt over to the other ship, which had drifted near enough to nearly hit them, to join Xion and Ventus, upon which he began speaking to them rapidly. 

Mickey turned to find Terra unconscious, too. Suddenly, Mickey was very aware of a presence behind him; he swerved around to see Sora with his keyblade pointed directly at him. Sora was grinning at him with fangs, horns, and black wings fully visible; Mickey had seen such before, when Sora had been pretending to be Vanitas, but it still struck terror in him, especially with the darkness they now obviously exuded and the malicious feral grin. 

But Mickey wasn’t a keyblade Master for anything. There was a second’s delay between sleep spells—which Sora must have been using—and when they took effect. Just after Sora whispered “sleepga”, Mickey cast “esuna”, which prevented the spell’s effect. Mickey jumped back, taking advantage of Sora’s surprise to cast his own “sleep” spell.

Nothing happened.

Sora grinned, fangs visible, as he said with clear amusement, “Sorry, but demons don’t sleep.” Then, he vanished.

Mickey quickly cast a spell on himself to prevent all status effects as he tried to think what he could do in this situation. He could fight Sora, but if he did, and won, Riku and most likely the other two would come fight. But, if he could get to his companions and wake them…

“Oh, no you don’t!” Sora said, knocking away Mickey’s keyblade as he turned it towards Terra. The force knocked Mickey onto his rear.

“Okay, I surrender!” Mickey said, putting his hands in the air. There wasn’t really any other choice. Mickey’s heart told him that Sora wouldn’t kill him… or was that just false hope? No, he trusted Sora, at least on that front. Sora wasn’t that far gone.

Sora shifted slightly, seeming to think about that. “Okay,” he decided, then grabbed a nearby rope. Mickey held his wrists out, and Sora began to tie him to a railing.

“What’s going on?” someone asked sleepily, and Mickey looked up to find Aqua had awoken.

“Shit,” Sora yelled, abandoning the rope, then threw his keyblade, making it into a glider, which he then hopped onto and sped off.

“Get him!” Mickey shouted at Aqua, but it was already too late—Sora was too far away.

Even so, Aqua leapt off the crow’s nest, jumping onto her own glider. Mickey watched as Xion, Ventus, Riku, and Sora sped through a portal; Aqua was nearly there, and it hadn’t closed yet…

Then, their ship turned into crabs, and multiple explosions rocked the pirate ship next to them.

Aqua stopped; as he fell towards the water, Mickey tried signaling her to go, that he could take care of things, but in her hesitation the portal had closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's going to happen to everyone now? Next chapter will be up probably Wednesday, Dec. 16 or Thursday, Dec. 17!


	8. Hang 'Em High

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Masters report in to Yen Sid.   
> Sora and co. discuss being refugees.  
> Aqua has a surprise encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the shortest chapter with only about 3500 words; that's just how scenes divided best. 
> 
> Just a reminder that the headings do mention days left, so it's good to pay attention to them to spot time gaps or events happening at the same time.

**Day 578, morning;  
78 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower;  
POV Yen Sid**

Yen Sid was lounging on his library couch reading when a broom walked up to him, letting him know that someone had arrived at the Tower. He sighed. Just as he was getting to the good part, too! He returned the dollar-store romance novel to its hiding spot within a hollowed-out leather-bound dictionary, placing it back on the shelf on his way out. He waved his arm to change out of his bathrobe and into his wizard robe as he made his way to his office. 

Once at his office he sat down at his desk, picking up the wizard hat that had been set upon it and placing it onto his head. He folded his hands and made sure his expression was the impassionate imposing one everyone expected of him. He knew who it would be, after all: those who had left the meeting and the rescued young keyblade wielders. Yen Sid was curious as to why it had taken three days to locate and rescue them, but the Caribbean was a large and slow-moving place, with the primary means of travel being boats. World Order had to be maintained, after all, so they couldn’t simply use a GummiShip to traverse it. He reminded himself that no matter how curious, he had to keep a stoic expression, as was expected of him.

The stoic expression almost slipped into one of surprise as Mickey, Terra, Aqua, Donald, and Goofy entered the room—without anyone else. Had they failed? Where was Riku? Yen Sid kept his poker face; they would tell him soon enough, although from their forlorn expressions the answer was most likely a bleak one. Had something unfortunate happened to the young wielders that had been captured?

“Welcome,” Yen Sid greeted, keeping his voice at his usual even tone and speaking carefully to maintain the air of a wise wizard. “Your expressions signify that the outcome of your adventure was not as expected.”

Mickey bowed his head. “Unfortunately,” he confirmed. “We’ve learned the identity of some of those in the crimson cloaks…” he fidgeted his thumbs, seeming unsure of how to continue. Yen Sid waited patiently, trying to keep his thoughts level, steeling himself. Had Xehanort returned?

“It’s Ven,” Aqua said quickly, voice trembling slightly. “Ven is one of them.”

It took all of Yen Sid’s willpower to not exclaim in surprise; he was sure he’d accidentally allowed his eyebrows to raise slightly. Hopefully no one noticed.

“And Xion, Sora, and Riku,” Terra added, voice grim. “Probably Roxas too.”

Yen Sid bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from gasping in surprise. He had to stay calm, maintain the wise-old-wizard persona. “How is that possible?” he asked sharply. “We confined three of them here and ruled them out.”

“I don’t know,” Mickey said. “I suppose the only ones we actually saw in the cloaks were Ventus and Xion, but Riku and Sora fled with them after… well...”

“After attacking us,” Aqua finished for Mickey. She always was more straightforward. 

Yen Sid slowly blinked, processing that, reminding himself not to react before he had all the facts. “Perhaps you five ought to explain everything that happened,” he suggested calmly. At least, he hoped he appeared calm.

The more the group explained, the more difficult it became for Yen Sid to maintain his stoic demeanor. What type of new organization could have ensnared so many warriors of the Light, including a Master? This was unfathomable. Well, maybe not unfathomable, as technically three of them had been against the side of Light at one point or another, but the foe must be very formidable if they could get them all to return to the Dark at once and then draw in Ventus and Sora too. How could that happen? Especially Ventus, who was supposed to literally have no darkness in him. Yet he was part of a group of murderers. Sora, too, had always had such an open heart, never wanting to hurt anyone and even trying to redeem his enemies. What had happened in the time since the war had ended? Had someone dark gotten a persuasive hold on him somehow? Was he possessed? Was it even Sora? Mickey then said something disturbing that only furthered that line of questions.

“The wings and horns Sora had weren’t just an illusion to help pretend he’s Vanitas,” the mouse said nervously. “They were real. He could turn invisible, too, I’m pretty sure… and there was darkness. So much darkness. But… it was a strange darkness. Otherworldly, almost. Not like the darkness we’re used to.”

Yen Sid frowned slightly and carefully crinkled his eyebrows; he wanted to look confused and worried, but only a little, not showing exactly how much so he was. “What do you mean, not what we’re used to?” he asked, silently reminding himself again that he must retain a collected demeanor.

“Well, I’m not actually too sure how to describe it,” Mickey admitted. “It was almost… inhuman. Like… hmm…”

“Like Sora’s an actual demon,” Aqua said in a whisper. 

“Gawrsh, don’t say that!” Goofy said. “Sora’s a good kid.”

“Good kids don’t commit mass murder!” Aqua snapped back.

“We don’t actually know if he did or not,” Yen Sid leveled. “It is still possible he is innocent. However, we cannot ignore that the evidence creates a strong case otherwise. At the very least, he seems to be working with those who are committing the murders, and harbors a darkness that gives him the visage of a demon.”

“Sora did use the word demon to describe himself, come to think of it,” Mickey recalled. “I tried to use a sleep spell, but it was ineffective, and he said ‘demons don’t sleep’.”

“Perhaps some more research on that matter is due,” Yen Sid determined. “Now we must discuss how to solve the problem of the vigilantes as we know their identities.”

Terra said, “If it were anyone else, we would be taking them out without question, but…”

“But it’s Ven,” Aqua stated.

“And Sora!” Donald added.

“As well as at least three other wielders from the new generation,” Yen Sid pointed out. “First, we must evaluate things further. The fact that Sora’s appearance is changing and his use of the term 'demon' bothers me. Usually my guess would be possession, but—”

“Exactly!” Donald squawked. “That must be why Sora’s doing this!”

“As I was saying,” Yen Sid continued, putting the appropriate level of force into his voice to demand their attention while not upsetting anyone. “Usually my guess would be possession, but the fact that the four others who are closely connected to his heart are with him runs counter to that. They would most certainly be aware if Sora were possessed, and have taken methods to stop it, not followed along.”

“Then maybe they’re all possessed!” Donald said, looking proud of his conclusion.

Yen Sid shook his head. “Riku, as you ought to be aware, is highly experienced and skilled when it comes to overcoming possession, to the point that Xehanort gave up attempting to make him a vessel. There is obviously more at play here than.”

“So you think Sora may willingly be killing people?” Goofy asked worriedly.

Aqua answered briskly. “At the very least, he’s aligned with Ven and Xion, whom we watched destroy a ship and then mercilessly strike down any crew member who tried escaping.”

Yen Sid then realized he was missing part of the story. “How did they acquire the ship in the first place, if they supposedly were caught?”

“Oh, right,” Aqua said. She could always be relied upon to give any information when needed. “They were originally captured. We managed to save a few of the crew members from the ship that had captured them, even though the two had tried to destroy it when they escaped from us. According to them, after Ven and Xion escaped, which was only a few hours later, the two struck down its own captain and a few crew members before the rest complied with their demands for fear of their lives. They then actively hunted down that Navy ship with intent to destroy.” She was concise and to the point, which Yen Sid appreciated and respected. Many of the other keyblade wielders weren’t as easily understood when they tried to explain things.

Yen Sid thought about that. Clearly, they had a kill planned there. The fact that Roxas and Sora went with them meant that the intent of their supposed day trip was in fact one to take down that ship. But why were they doing things like that? Why were they killing so many? It didn’t make sense. The idea that they were trying to be vigilantes wasn’t as appealing anymore, as although there were some wielders he undoubtedly believed were capable of such—Roxas and Xion included—he would never fathom that Ventus and Sora would so readily be willing to kill people. At least, not the Sora from the end of the war… had something happened between the time he left to save his friend and the time he returned?

“Master?” Mickey said; Yen Sid realized they were waiting for him to guide them.

“I would like Miss Kairi summoned here,” Yen Sid decided.

“Kairi?” Aqua asked with a gasp. “Surely you don’t think she has something to do with this.”

Terra pointed out to Aqua, “She is best friends with Sora and Riku, who are involved.” He then turned to Yen Sid. “But I agree. Kairi is a Princess of Light. She intrinsically has no darkness. She wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Mickey was the one to correctly catch on. “You think this could have something to do with when Sora rescued her.”

Yen Sid nodded.

“But Master,” Mickey continued. “I thought all her memories about that were gone?”

“So she says,” Yen Sid confirmed.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 578, morning;  
78 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Kairi**

Kairi stared at the message on her GummiPhone, hands clutching its sides tightly and face deathly pale as she sat frozen. Shit. It hadn’t even been an hour since Sora, Xion, Riku, and Ventus dashed into their base and informed her and Naminé that the four were now refugees. Lea had shown up a few minutes later, informing them that Ienzo had been discovered too; the bluenette had responded oddly to a message Lea sent, and upon investigation Lea discovered that situation. Thank goodness they’d decided to use codes—right now, it seemed all Aeleus thought Lea wanted was a lunch date with Ienzo. They had to tread extra carefully there though, as it was possible they’d start suspecting Lea simply because he was trying to talk with Ienzo. Although they probably suspected Lea quite a bit anyway because of proximity. Is that why they wanted to talk to Kairi? Did they truly suspect her?

“What’s wrong?” Naminé, seated next to Kairi on the ratty couch, asked as she gently placed a hand on Kairi's shoulder. Her other arm was wrapped around Chirithy, who was asleep in Naminé's lap.

“Aqua messaged me. She wants me to go to the Tower immediately,” Kairi replied.

“You didn’t see that coming?” Lea asked from the table, where he was looking over the ledger with Xion, who was trying to prove to him that she actually did get more kills than him that week despite her brief absence.

“Yeah, they sent me that, too,” Roxas said through a mouthful of fried rice; he was sitting on the studio apartment’s bed with Ventus, where they’d pushed some papers aside to make a spot to sit. He swallowed, then said, “I’m not going, of course.”

“What? Why?” Kairi asked, feeling scandalized. Ignoring orders from Yen Sid?

Roxas looked at Kairi like she had two heads. “Um, hello? I helped hide Sora. I’ve been with him every single time they saw him since returning. I was at Port Royal with them, then left after a whispered conversation instead of joining in the search. If that didn’t scream ‘suspicious’ before, it sure as hell does now!”

Kairi blushed in embarrassment. Right, that should have been obvious; she was letting her anxiety get in the way of her deductive reasoning. But what should she do? 

“Do what your heart tells you,” Naminé suggested. She had a way of sensing the gist of Kairi’s thoughts.

“My heart tells me it would be bad to go,” Kairi admitted. “But I can’t just avoid them… can I? I’ve been mostly staying at the Land of Departure to train, and they know where my apartment is…”

“Then stay here,” Ventus suggested.

“But if I vanish, they’ll know I’m involved…”

“They’d probably figure it out anyway,” Riku pointed out, from his seat on an old chintz armchair they’d dragged in just before their sea adventure. 

Sora, seated on Riku’s lap, agreed. “Yeah, you can’t lie for shit, Kairi.”

“Excuse me!?” Kairi bristled. “I so too can—oh, who am I kidding,” she said, wilting. “You’re right, I can’t.” She could easily lie by omission and question-dodging, but when it came to direct lies she was dead obvious. “It’s hopeless. Guess I’m moving in, too.”

“We might need a bigger place then,” Lea pointed out, half-jokingly. There was little chance they'd find a new place immediately; they'd most likely be using sleeping bags, trading off who got the couch and bed, for at least a month or two. Sora had only gotten this one after its owner conveniently mysteriously died (translation: Sora killed him; Kairi assumed he had been on the list), but if they got a place that way now they'd be caught.

Sora sighed. “Yeah. Looks like we’re all gonna be refugees now, huh?”

“Not Naminé,” Kairi reminded him. “Or Lea.”

Naminé smiled gently. “Yes, me. Once they realize you’re involved, they’ll immediately suspect me as well. Same for Lea—if Roxas and Xion are involved, he’s sure to be too. It’s too risky for any of us to speak to them now, even if they aren’t fully certain of our involvement.”

BZZZT! BZZZT!

Kairi jumped slightly in surprise as her GummiPhone vibrated aggressively. “Shit, Aqua’s calling me!” Kairi informed them, panicking. She quickly pressed the ‘call end’ button, and then her eyes went wide. “Ohmygods. I just declined Aqua's call.”

Lea smacked his forehead. “Well, now she knows you’ve ignored her.” When Kairi looked at Lea in confusion, he further explained, “She’ll notice that it went to voicemail much quicker than if you’d let it continue ringing. So she knows you actively declined the call instead of simply missed it.”

Kairi closed her eyes and sunk down into the couch. “Ugh, I’m such an idiot.”

“No you’re not,” Xion chimed in. “If anyone’s an idiot, it’s me; I’m the one who got us caught! They were off our trail, and then I let that stupid pirate catch me stealing their provisions…”

“I’m just as at fault,” Ventus added. “I was captured too.”

"All this is true," Chirithy confirmed; how long had it been awake?

"Hey!" Ventus protested.

Riku shook his head. “No, it’s my fault. If I hadn’t let them know you were captured…”

“But I told you you could,” Sora reminded him. “And Ven, Xion, I wasn't keeping watch well enough, so it’s my fault there too.”

“Maybe everyone made mistakes, then,” Naminé said diplomatically.

“Not me,” said Roxas unhelpfully, earning him a rare glare from the blonde girl.

“Actually, regardless of fault, it wouldn’t matter,” Lea chimed in. “Ienzo got caught, so they’d be back on our trail anyway once re-running the data…”

Sora gasped. “That’s right! You don’t think he’ll tell them everything, will he? They’re probably questioning him intensely…”

Lea shook his head. “Nah. Ienzo may not look it, but he is a brilliant liar, and doesn’t cave easily.”

“Yup. He’s a master of illusions,” Riku pointed out. “You need to be skilled at deception for that.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 578, morning;  
78 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Mickey**

Aqua stared at her phone, deathly pale. “Kairi declined the call,” she stated, voice full of disbelief.

“Maybe she was busy with something else,” Terra suggested, giving the girl the benefit of the doubt. Mickey doubted that.

“I sure hope so,” Aqua said quietly. “Kairi… I can’t believe she would be involved…”

Terra frowned. “Perhaps there’s more at play than we’d thought. Can a Princess of Heart even fall to darkness?” That was a good question, Mickey thought.

“It has never happened before,” Yen Sid confirmed. “However, we cannot rule anything out. If Naminé herself hadn’t confirmed it were Kairi upon her return, I would question if it were her…”

“Well, maybe what they’re doing isn’t inherently dark, then,” Mickey suggested. If Kairi was pure light, then she would surely reject anything that was pure darkness.

“Or she thinks she can pull Sora and Riku out of it!” Donald suggested loudly.

“I really hope that’s the case,” Aqua whispered forlornly.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 601, morning;  
15 Remaining;   
Keyblade Graveyard;  
POV Vanitas**

Vanitas casually strode around the Keyblade Graveyard. He had woken up here a while ago, probably a year by now, but had no idea why; he fully had expected to have faded into the darkness once defeated. Too bad he didn’t need food, being pure darkness, or else he’d gladly have starved. He didn't even get tired from all the walking, which was constant as he had nothing better to do. He couldn't even sleep. Well, whatever, it was what it was. Vanitas had no idea what else to do with himself. Xehanort was gone. His purpose had been to follow the man, at first to reconnect with Ventus, then to carry out the guy’s plan for lack of anything to do. Which again was happening. Vanitas had no other purpose, so why was he alive? The old guy was definitely gone, no doubt about that. No one else would accept him, and Vanitas had no idea how to make friends, nor would anyone want to be as he was pure darkness. The only one who’d been close to a friend was the Riku replica, who was definitely gone too… should he try finding Ventus again? Surely Ventus would know what to do, if the blonde didn’t try to kill him first. Yeah, actually, that was a good idea! He should do that.

“Sora. I finally found you,” sounded a tense voice.

Vanitas frowned. Sora was here? How? Why? He turned to the voice, only seeing the blue-clad girl who had helped hide Ventus from him. What was her name again? Right, Aqua. No sign of Sora… wait, did she think he was that kid? They looked alike. “Guess again,” Vanitas said flatly, as the girl slowly approached.

“Sora, I know it’s you,” the bluenette said firmly, to Vanitas’s utter confusion. “Stop trying to pretend to be Vanitas. We already caught you once; it’s no use trying that again.”

Vanitas looked at the girl, baffled. The kid had tried to pretend he was Vanitas? Why? Wasn’t he a super force of light? It made no sense.

“It’s over,” said Aqua. “Surrender now. I won’t let you murder any more people.”

Vanitas blinked at the girl, processing that. Murder? The kid was murdering people? No wonder he’d try pretending to be him. But how did a Guardian of Light progress to a serial killer? Had he had some sort of mental break? “As fun as that sounds, you’ve got the wrong guy,” Vanitas told her. “The only guy I’ve ever wanted to kill was Ventus, and I’m done with that now… speaking of, where is he? I’ve been thinking I’d like to see him…”

“You should know where he is,” the blue-clad girl said venomously. “Considering you dragged him into your little scheme. Let me guess, you sent him and Xion to blow up another ship full of mostly-innocent people?”

Vanitas raised his eyebrows. Ventus did that? At Sora’s command? Had Vanitas fallen into some sort of alternate universe? And what was with No.i working with them, too? How big was this thing? Vanitas wanted to know. Maybe he could help. Then again, those three and murder? Maybe Aqua was off her rocker. She had spent significant time in the Realm of Darkness, after all.

“Sora, please. Come quietly, or I’ll have to fight you,” Aqua said, a pleading voice seeping through the tense anger.

“Okay, lady, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but if you’re saying Ventus is murdering people, then you must have blown a brain cell, because the Ventus I know could barely even bring himself to try killing me. That little twink Sora had to land the blow. Which apparently didn’t even work, so. What you’re saying is impossible.”

Aqua narrowed her eyes. “Stop it, Sora. No matter how believable your acting is, I know it’s you,” she said, although her voice wavered slightly with unsurity.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Okay, seriously, I ain’t the kid you think. Want me to prove it? Here.” Vanitas braced himself, then felt a brief but sharp pain as he summoned a dozen unversed. He didn’t send them to attack, though; he didn’t feel like being in more pain.

Aqua looked utterly shocked. “Y-you really are… you really are Vanitas!” she proclaimed.

“Yeah. Duh. That’s what I’ve been saying. Now what’s this about Ventus murdering people?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: While Vanitas is being questioned by Yen Sid, Terra comes rushing in with a captive! Expect it Friday 12/18 or Saturday 12/19!


	9. You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone is captured by the Masters!

**Day 601, afternoon;  
14 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, study;  
POV Yen Sid**

Yen Sid resisted pinching himself to make sure this wasn't a surrealistic dream as he stared at the black-haired denizen of darkness standing in front of him. Aqua had brought him here. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy had arrived moments before the two arrived, as Aqua had sent them all messages saying it was urgent. Of course, everyone had assumed it was Sora again, until the boy had rolled his eyes and summoned some unversed to prove his actual identity.

Supposedly, the boy wanted to find Ventus, even if that meant working with the Light. He claimed he didn’t want to actually kill Ventus this time, but you could never know with someone like him. Still, it would be useful to have another ally, and truthfully, Yen Sid didn’t care if he tried killing Ventus when he found them, as long as it led to apprehending the rest of the group. Sometimes, sacrifice was necessary.

“Aqua, what are your thoughts on this matter?” Yen Sid asked. She knew Ventus and Vanitas best.

Aqua frowned. “As much as I loathe it, we need all the help we can get, considering there’s eight of them.”

“Whoa whoa whoa,” Vanitas interjected. “Eight of them? I thought it was just Sora, Ventus, and Xion!”

Yen Sid answered that. “We believe Sora to be the ring-leader, and somehow he has roped the remainder of this generation of keyblade wielders into his scheme.”

Vanitas raised his eyebrows. “All of them? Isn’t there a princess in that group?”

Yen Sid nodded. “The group consists of Sora, Ventus, Xion, Roxas, Lea, Riku, Kairi, and Naminé.”

“Ienzo too,” Mickey added. “Although he’s not a wielder, and we’re not sure how willing he was. He’s been captured already though.”

Vanitas blinked. “Uh. Are you sure you’re all still on the side of Light? Especially if Sora is the leader of this renegade group?”

Yen Sid nodded. “Yes. We are unsure how Sora’s previously nearly-pure light has become so corrupted, but he has enough darkness in him to have pulled off pretending to be you for a while. His influence over the group is strong enough that they’d probably follow him blindly, although we do believe he has a personal justification for his actions.” Yen Sid did not believe Sora would simply begin killing for fun. Sora must have a reason for his recent murder streak, regardless of how misguided it surely was.

Vanitas began laughing at that. “Pure light? Are you joking? That kid always had a lot of darkness! He just hid it away behind a wall! The duck and dog should know what I mean; he periodically released it, after all. Organization intel said you called it, what was it, ‘rage form’? Yeah. That’s the downside of locking all your negative emotions away, you know; eventually they come back and bite you in the ass.”

Mickey turned to glare at Donald and Goofy. “Is this true?”

The duck and dog shifted nervously. “Sora said it was benign,” Donald muttered. 

Goofy explained further. “Gawrsh. It only happened on occasion, in battle, and he only ever used it to attack heartless… we thought it was just some residual thing from when he briefly became a heartless.”

Yen Sid frowned. “I see… Can you describe this form? Was he in control during it?”

Donald shook his head. “No. It was more of a cloak of darkness, and it acted feral. Very much like a heartless.”

Mickey frowned. “What I saw wasn’t like that at all.” Mickey turned to Vanitas. “Can that kind of thing manifest as horns, fangs, and wings, without the darkness cloak?”

Vanitas tilted his head, appearing confused. He thought for a moment. “I’ve never actually seen anything like that… but it sounds like something I read in one of the darkness books the old guy made me read. He said it was a myth but maybe it’s not. What was it called? A demon? I think it had something to do with a god of death. Like, they’re its minions or something.”

The room stilled for a moment before Mickey spoke. “So it does have to do with how he brought Kairi back,” he concluded.

“A demon deal?” Aqua enquired. “Would Sora truly—”

“Yes,” everyone else answered before she could finish the thought.

At that moment, the door burst open, and Terra briskly strode in, dragging a very feral-looking Sora who was bound and gagged with rope. When he stopped walking, Terra shifted to hold Sora by the upper arms; both his wrists and ankles were tightly tied, and more rope wrapped around his upper torso to cover his wings.

“You found him!” Mickey exclaimed.

Aqua gasped. “Terra! Why would you have him gagged and bound like that? Murderer or not, he’s still a kid! Surely sleep or binding magic would have sufficed?”

“He’s immune to that,” Mickey pointed out.

“Well, the gag is unnecessary, at least,” Aqua amended.

“He bit me,” Terra said simply, nodding towards his arm, which indeed had a full bite mark, complete with fang holes. It was scabbed over, but still looked brutal. “It’s apparently not fully healable via normal cure magic. Figured gagging him was the best way to avoid that again.”

“Unfortunately, we must risk such, as we need him to be able to speak if we wish to interrogate him,” Yen Sid pointed out. He was attempting to stay calm, to maintain his stoic demeanor, but it was proving extremely difficult condering Sora was glaring at them maliciously with golden eyes, had torn bat-like wings poking out of his back, and had horns sticking out from his head. Yes, the hero-of-light had truly become a demon—one who seemed more fearsome than even Vanitas. Perhaps making people feel so frightened by mere visage was a trait of being a demon.

“I need someone to—Hold on. Is that Vanitas?! Did you capture Vanitas thinking he was Sora or something?!”

Vanitas scoffed and crossed his arms. “About time you noticed. Although seeing the kid now, I can see how you mistook us.”

“Vanitas will be aiding us,” Yen Sid explained. “We can give you the full details on that later. The more pressing matter right now is Sora. Please remove the gag so he can explain to us what is going on.”

“Right,” Terra said. “I need someone to do that; I have to hold him down. Apparently he can turn invisible, and the bindings turn invisible too when he does so. He can’t wriggle very far when bound like this, but it’s still annoying to find him again. He cannot, however, become invisible while someone is touching him, it seems.”

“Fine, I’ll do it,” Vanitas volunteered, quickly strolling over and tearing the gag off. “So, Sora, where do you get off impersonating me?” he demanded, eyes narrowed.

Sora spat in the noitrette’s face.

Vanitas growled and spat back.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Aqua said sternly, grabbing Vanitas by the arm and pulling him away.

“Sora,” Yen Sid said, ignoring the childish shenanigans, although he was surprised Sora would initiate such. “Tell us. Why are you murdering people?”

“I don’t have to tell you shit!” Sora hissed vitriolically, bearing his fangs. 

Vanitas whistled and crossed his arms again. “Yeah, definitely can see how you mistook us. I’m impressed, Sora.”

Sora scoffed in response, glare still firmly on Yen Sid.

“Sora,” Yen Sid chided, immensely struggling to maintain a semi-calm demeanor. “I will use a truth potion if necessary.”

Sora blinked, then began laughing, a maniacal grin spreading across his face. “You really think that’ll work? Go ahead, try it! I’m immune to all forms of poisons and potions. You can feed me pure cyanide and I won’t even flinch. In fact, I’ve even tested that. It’s tasty; you should try some. I’ll even provide it; I’ve got more than plenty.” 

“Okay, I stand corrected,” Vanitas said, eyebrows raised. “This kid is somehow worse than me. I’m shocked you mistook us.”

“He’s faking it,” Donald interjected, rolling his eyes. “He was a theater kid.”

“Yup! He's awesome at acting!” Goofy pitched in.

Sora only laughed louder at that. “You think I’m faking, huh? Go ahead then, believe that! Release me, and I’ll show you ‘faking’ as you draw your last breath!”

“He did bite me,” Terra pointed out. “Pretty sure he was aiming to kill during our battle. He manifested some sort of strange darkness-cloak. I only won the fight because he accidentally crashed into a tree.” Ah, that must be the cloak Donald and Goofy explained, Yen Sid realized.

“Hmph. Stupid tree,” Sora muttered under his breath, then said louder, “Consider yourself lucky. Next thing I was going to do was tear your heart out and eat it.”

“Sora,” Aqua said, somehow managing to remain calm. Yen Sid respected her ability to do so immensely. “I truly don’t believe you’d actually do that. Please, tell us what's going on.”

Sora grinned again, showing fangs. “Release me first and maybe I will.”

Aqua pursed her lips. “That is not an option and you know it. Tell us where Ven is, at the very least. Please.”

“Hmmm. No, I don’t think I will… not that I know, anyway. Pretty sure he’s got a mark he’s tracking right about now.”

“A… mark?” Aqua’s eyes widened. “You mean, he’s out murdering someone right now?!”

“Well, we prefer the term ‘assassinate’, but yeah, murder is accurate too I suppose,” Sora said glibly. 

Yen Sid wasn’t quite sure how to process all that was happening. It sounded like Sora was having fun, to Yen Sid’s shock. What had happened to the Hero of Light in the past year and a half to have twisted him so thoroughly? Yen Sid could tell that he was not possessed by any dark being, despite the demon visage. Or was it a visage? Had Vanitas been correct in that Sora had been changed fully into a dark being, servant of a god of the dead? Sora would go that far to save a friend? Yen Sid would have to give the other young keyblade wielders a lecture about appropriate levels of sacrifice. That is, if they were able to be brought back from this rebellious streak. They must be aware that what Sora was asking them to do was inappropriate. This was turning into a Xehanort situation all over again; what would happen next? Would Sora turn them all into demons, too?

“Sora,” Yen Sid continued the interview. “Please tell us why you have formed a dark organization. It is inappropriate. It would be desirable for you to disband it and return to the side of Light.”

Sora laughed. “‘Inappropriate’? That’s putting it mildly! Besides, we’re all still Light. Well, the others are at least.”

“So you admit that you are no longer on the side of Light, rather the side of Dark?”

Sora scoffed. “I’m on neither. Demons serve Death, not Light or Dark!”

“So you admit that you are a demon?” Yen Sid clarified. Well, they were getting somewhere, at least. Sora was giving them information without even realizing it… or did he realize? Yen Sid hoped the boy was simply being reckless, as he used to be.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Like that’s not obvious? What else would wings, horns, fangs, and a tail make me?”

“... Tail?” Terra asked, clearly confused.

Sora shrugged. “Usually I don’t manifest it since it’s kinda weird… but it can be useful sometimes.” Sora grinned dangerously, flashing teeth.

“Ugh!” Terra gasped, letting go at Sora to clutch at his throat, around which was now wrapped a long tail that ended in a barb. 

“Terra!” Aqua gasped, rushing over to help. 

Sora, while choking Terra, chewed through his wrist bindings with his teeth, then moved to untie his feet. Goofy rushed over to stop him, and Sora latched onto the dog’s arm with his teeth, causing Goofy to scream; despite Goofy’s efforts to pull away, Sora was not letting go.

Yen Sid sighed. “Enough!” he called, shooting a burst of light at Sora. Status spells might not work, but a strong enough light spell would knock any dark creature unconscious—which it did. Yen Sid then summoned some more rope from a nearby supply closet and had it wrap around Sora, tying not only his wrists and ankles together but wrapping around his whole body to bind his arms, tail, and wings tightly against his torso, too. Yen Sid then transfigured the remaining rope into a muzzle, in case the boy tried to bite out of his bindings again, and enchanted the rope with a ward to prevent the use of magic even though usually such couldn't be used anyway when bound so tightly. Better safe than sorry.

Aqua unwrapped the now-limp tail from Terra’s throat as Terra gasped for air. Once she did the rope wound around that too, tying it against Sora’s back as Aqua used a cure spell on Terra—the tail had been squeezing so tightly it left bruises. 

“What now?” asked Donald as he tended to Goofy’s bite wound, which like Terra’s was not taking well to healing magic.

Mickey turned to Yen Sid. “You can ask the Tower to manifest a dungeon, correct?”

Yen Sid nodded gravely. “Yes, I suppose that is necessary.”

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 601, evening;  
14 Remaining;   
Mysterious Tower, dungeon;  
POV Sora**

Sora blinked his eyes open to find himself on a hard stone floor. He moved to get up, only to realize that was impossible thanks to ropes tightly wrapped around him. Sora closed his eyes, trying to think about how he’d ended up—oh. Right. Maybe he should have just told them what was happening in the first place instead of putting on that show; Sora had a feeling he might have scared them a little. Okay, scared them a lot. It was kinda fun though! He’d always enjoyed theater as a kid, and hadn’t had a chance to act until recently… he’d overplayed it though. Definitely overplayed it. Maybe he shouldn’t have tried strangling Terra. His show of hostility had gotten him bound completely and… muzzled? Oh. He bit Goofy. Sora felt incredibly bad about that; he’d gotten caught in the moment, doing whatever he could to try escaping… and in the process hurt one of the friends he was doing this to save.

Where was he, though? It was very dim, no lights nor windows; not that that mattered to Sora, with his night vision. He was going to miss that perk when this was all over. Sora looked around; he seemed to be in some sort of a cell, complete with thick iron bars. Was this in the Mysterious Tower? Why did they have a dungeon here? Had Yen Sid locked people up before?

Sora heard footsteps on stone steps. Who was it? Obviously they planned to interrogate him again. So, Aqua, maybe? Or Terra? It was two people… As they came into view, Sora let out a growl. Donald and Goofy. Great, they were trying to play the guilt card. Sora could always turn invisible, make them think—no, wait. They knew he could do that, and he couldn’t move at all so it’d be easy to find him.

Goofy flipped a light switch, and Sora blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the sudden painfully bright light.

“So!” Donald said, looking angrily at Sora. “You’re going to explain properly this time!”

“Yeah; we know you’re not as mean as you were acting,” Goofy said. “I’m sure hurting Terra like that had been an accident.”

Sora, of course, couldn’t reply thanks to a muzzle, nor could he move with all the ropes. He felt a bit guilty; those two had so much trust in him, even after that whole display. Sora had even bit Goofy, yet the dog seemed more sad than actually upset with Sora.

“Say something!” Donald demanded.

“Gawrsh, Donald, I don’t think he can, considering he has a muzzle.”

Donald used a spell and the muzzle changed back into the ropes it originally was, which flopped onto the floor. The floor which Sora was still lying sideways on, as he was so bound he could barely wiggle let alone sit or stand.

“Maybe we should help him sit up,” Goofy suggested.

Donald shook his head. “Yen Sid said not to open the cell under any circumstance,” he asserted, then turned to Sora looking slightly guilty. “Sorry, Sora.”

“It’s… fine,” Sora muttered. Not like it’d make any difference if he sat.

“So what’s going on?” Donald squawked in a mix of both anger and worry.

Sora sighed. “You heard what I said,” he told them, not bothering to feign vitriol. They’d been his travel companions for long enough that they could tell when he was acting. Well, that wasn’t true; Sora often had acted happy when it wasn’t, which they hadn’t noticed—probably because they thought he was more happy-go-lucky than anything else, leading them to assume that was his default even at times when it was an act. But when it came to dramatics like earlier, they could definitely tell.

“So you really are some sort of demon?” Goofy confirmed. 

Sora nodded tiredly. He was getting tired of explaining that so much.

“And it’s because you got Kairi back, right?” Donald checked.

Sora didn’t reply. He hadn’t told them that, but it wasn’t unexpected that they’d figured that bit out.

“Is murdering part of the demon deal?” Goofy wondered.

Again, Sora didn’t reply.

“Do you have to work for a death god or something?” Donald asked.

Sora remained silent. He wasn’t surprised they knew he’d be serving under a death god; it was in most demonology books.

“Gawrsh, Donald, I don’t think he’s going to tell us anything,” Goofy concluded.

“Sora, please,” Donald pleaded. “We can help you.”

“Are you willing to kill people?” Sora asked flatly in response.

“Wak! Of course not!” Donald proclaimed.

“Then you can’t help me,” Sora told him confidently.

“What if we spoke to the god for you?” Goofy suggested. “Maybe he’d be willing to negotiate.”

“Not gonna work,” Sora said dejectedly. 

“Then maybe we could defeat him. That’d get you out of the deal, right?” Donald said.

It would, but that was a suicide mission for sure. Mortals couldn’t kill a death god via regular means; there were enchanted weapons that could do it, but none currently existed at the moment and they all were created via means they definitely wouldn’t be willing to do, such as through mass sacrificial ritual magic.

“I can’t let you do that,” Sora said. “I don’t want any of my friends to die. Now can we please stop talking about it?” he said tiredly as he turned to look away.

Goofy and Donald were quiet for a while, but they didn’t leave. “Why’d you try to hide all this from us?” the former finally asked, sounding sad.

Sora scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Geez, I wonder why,” he said sarcastically, shaking his bindings. “Not like I expected to be locked up or killed or anything along those lines, being a so-called dark being and all.”

“We wouldn’t have imprisoned you if you’d cooperated!” Donald squawked.

“Maybe you wouldn’t have, but I’m pretty sure Yen Sid would have insisted anyway,” Sora pointed out. 

“But you told everyone else,” Goofy said, sounding hurt that they were left out.

“They all found out on their own,” Sora explained, feeling guilty. “I didn’t want anyone to know.”

“Gawrsh, Sora, you should know by now that you can lean on your friends when things are bad,” Goofy said gently.

“I know,” Sora said quietly. “But I didn’t want you to know what I was doing. I knew you’d try to stop me.”

“Well, yeah,” Goofy confirmed. “We don’t want you to be killing people. Do ya really hafta?”

Sora just nodded in response.

“No you don’t!” Donald declared adamantly. “We’ll find another way! We’ll turn you back to human!”

“Yeah! Then you won’t have to kill anymore,” Goofy reasoned. “Demons may need to, but humans don’t.”

That wasn’t quite how it worked, but Sora had a feeling that telling them he had initially been unaware of the demon condition, rather willingly signed up to kill a set quota of people while human, would only make things worse. Instead, he said, “You’re not gonna find anything.”

“Aw, phooey!” Donald declared. “You haven’t even tried, have you? Don’t worry. There must be a way!” And, perhaps there was; it was true Sora hadn’t tried at all to find a way. He didn’t want to; it was useful for achieving his goal. Besides, it was kinda fun being a demon, Sora had to admit, and not only because Riku had a strange fetish for that.

“Yup! We’ll get you out of this, Sora!” Goofy declared jovially. “Sounds good?” He looked at Sora expectantly.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Do what you want.” If they somehow actually did find a way, Sora would deal with that when the time came. They only had about a week’s worth of kills left, anyway, so Sora wouldn’t actually need the abilities after that, even though he enjoyed them.

Donald nodded. “Good! We’ll start looking into that right away!” he decided, then swerved around and hurried out of the dungeon, grabbing Goofy’s arm on his way.

“See ya later, Sora!” Goofy yelled back as he was pulled out of the dungeon by Donald.

Not long after the two left, someone else appeared—someone incredibly unexpected, actually.

“So, you know where Ventus is?” Vanitas asked, getting straight to the point.

“No,” Sora easily lied.

“Yeah, I don’t believe that for a second. Tell me.”

“Or what?”

Vanitas snapped his fingers, and a few unversed appeared around Sora. Ah, so it was a threat.

“Not going to work,” Sora said.

“You’re lying on the floor of a dungeon tied up. What can you do?” Vanitas asked with a smirk.

Sora didn’t reply. He concentrated on the unversed; he’d learned early on that his demon powers gave him influence over heartless, although he rarely ever used it except to get them to avoid him; would the same work with the unversed?

“Well, your funeral.” Vanitas waved an arm, then frowned. He waved the arm again. “What the hell. Why aren’t they attacking!?”

“Because they know to follow the stronger dark being,” Sora said with a malicious grin, deciding to have some fun.

“What?! There is NO way that’s true!” Vanitas shouted, stomping his foot like a petulant child. “Unversed, OBEY me! Now!” The unversed didn’t move.

“Sic ’em,” Sora told the creatures, and they obliged.

“Seriously!?” Vanitas pulled his keyblade out and slashed at the attacking unversed, cringing as each was defeated. Right, that caused him pain; Sora felt a little bad about that. Just a little. Vanitas had told the unversed to attack Sora, after all, so he kinda deserved it.

“Told you.”

“Hmph. Whatever,” Vanitas said with an eye roll, painfully obvious that he was trying to reign in his temper and appear calm and collected. “So. Where’s Ventus?”

“I told you, I’m not telling you,” Sora said neutrally.

Vanitas paused for a moment, seeming to think. “Okay. Okay, let’s make a deal then. You tell me where he is, I release you.”

Sora raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“How do I know you actually will?” Sora asked.

“I’ll release you from your bindings first.” Vanitas said, then, true to his word, summoned a couple unversed who untied the rope around Sora. Sora mentally kicked himself for not thinking of doing that when he’d had control over the creatures. Oh, well; the result was the same.

Sora stood up, stretching his wings out and cracking his wrists. “Not very smart, are you?” he asked casually.

“What? What does THAT mean?!”

“Seriously? You do know that the magical rope was binding my abilities, right?”

Vanitas blinked, processing that. “Fuck,” he concluded, as Sora summoned his keyblade, unlocked the cell door with it, slapped the stunned Vanitas with his tail to knock him aside, and then turned invisible so he could reduce chance of capture while searching for the exit; once outside he’d be able to summon his glider.

Oddly enough, Sora didn’t encounter anyone on his way out, even though Vanitas must have raised the alarm. Huh. Well, maybe Vanitas had actually not raised the alarm out of embarrassment. Or, maybe Sora had just gotten lucky… Well, whatever; it worked in Sora’s favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: There is a knock at the door, and it is not the anticipated pizza delivery man!
> 
> Expect it Sunday 12/20 or Monday 12/21!


	10. The Sharpest Lives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora returns to the base. Then, a few surprise visitors appear...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter, clocking it at a whopping 6100 words! It's basically one really long scene (with a fair amount of silliness despite the weight of it) and there was simply no feasible way to split it. So, enjoy this monster chapter!

**Day 601, night;  
13 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Riku**

Riku paced back and forth in the studio apartment, immensely worried. No one else was there to distract him from his musings. Specifically, one musing: Where was Sora? He should have been back already! They really should have lent him a GummiPhone (before Chip and Dale could get him one Sora had become a refugee), maybe Naminé’s or Kairi’s since they were usually together and rarely went on kills; as it stood, there was no way to contact him. Had something gone wrong with a mark? Had he been captured? Or, worse… 

The door opened.

“Sora!” Riku gasped upon seeing the brunette. He rushed over and pulled Sora into a tight hug, which Sora eagerly returned. “I was so worried. Where were you?”

Sora kicked his foot backwards to knock the door closed. “They captured me, but I escaped,” he explained, to Riku’s shock. Riku opened his mouth to ask what happened, but before he could Sora hurriedly said, “We can talk about that later, okay? I’m tired.”

Riku furrowed his brow in confusion. “I thought you didn’t need to sleep?”

Sora sighed. “Not physically, mentally. I need a distraction.” He turned up to look at Riku.

“A distraction?” Riku asked. Did Sora want to go on a date or something? It was awfully late in the evening for that, although this was San Fransokyo so undoubtedly clubs would be open, and Sora was a huge fan of night clubs.

“Yes, a distraction,” Sora emphasised, fluttering his eyelashes slightly as he looked into Riku’s eyes. His hands slid down to Riku’s waistband while his tail gently caressed Riku’s cheek.

Riku blinked. “Ohhh.” He blushed as he caught on. “Oh. Yes, a distraction. I, er, I can provide that,” Riku said, heart—and something lower—fluttering slightly. He should have assumed this had been what Sora had meant; the brunette had been insatiable ever since he and Riku had realized that both had been playing a waiting game. Sora had wanted to move very fast after that, claiming that they had months—years, really—to make up for, and Riku was definitely not complaining about that.

“Mhmm… So, get to it,” Sora murmured barely an inch from Riku’s lips, his tail now snaked under Riku's shirt to tickle his lower back. Riku was glad that no one had teased him yet for his obvious tail fetish, although surely they were snickering behind his back.

Riku leaned down and captured Sora’s lips with his own. Sora naturally tilted his head to slot them together perfectly, then opened his mouth slightly, providing Riku with an opportunity to slip his tongue in. Sora tangled his own tongue with Riku’s and let out a small moan before breaking the kiss, upon which Riku let out a small whine of disappointment.

Disappointment that soon turned into anticipation as Sora whispered breathlessly into Riku’s ear, “Wanna move to the bed?” As he said that, he maneuvered his hand to Riku’s crotch, giving his half-hard cock a small squeeze through his pants.

“What if the others return?” Riku whispered back, trying to suppress a moan and failing.

Sora grinned conspiratorially, then summoned his keyblade and pointed it at the door; there was a small flash of light, and a click of a lock.

“There. Now I’m free to do whatever I want with you,” Sora purred. Riku’s libido reacted immediately; he loved when Sora was in a dominant mood.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 601, night;  
12 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, hallway;  
POV Roxas**

Roxas turned the corner of the hallway to their base, then frowned at what he saw: Lea sitting in the hallway outside the door, fiddling with his GummiPhone. As Roxas approached, he realized the redhead was playing a game on it.

“What are you doing out here?" Roxas asked. “Forget your key?”

“Nope. They locked us out, and aren’t answering their GummiPhones. Well, Riku’s GummiPhone,” Lea answered.

“They?”

“Who do you think?”

Roxas furrowed his brow, thinking, then rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Let me guess: Sora’s back, and fucking Riku.” Ever since the two finally confessed on that pirate ship, they’d been taking every opportunity to get as intimate as possible. It was getting ridiculous; yeah, they had a lot of years of suppressed sexual tension to release, but there had to be a limit! Roxas had half a mind to get them chastity belts if that's what it took to stop this ridiculousness.

“Bingo,” Lea confirmed.

Roxas turned to the door and kicked it. “Open this door NOW or I’m busting it down!” he yelled. “If you want to fuck, get a hotel!”

“Just give us two minutes!” Sora yelled back. Ah, so he was aware the two were out there.

“No! Open it NOW!” Roxas repeated. He truly did plan to break the door down if they didn't hurry up.

“Unless you want to see us naked, I’d wait!” Sora shouted back.

“So? I have before! Hell, I’ve been inside you!”

Lea snickered. “Roxas, you dog.”

Roxas glared at Lea. “Not. Helping.”

The lock clicked and the door flew open. “There, happy?” Sora asked surily, a shirtless blushing Riku behind him near the bed; at least the silverette had managed to pull his pants on, even if he was still scrambling to buckle them. His shirtless state would be due to Sora practically swimming in what was clearly Riku’s t-shirt. 

“Put some pants on,” Roxas grumbled to Sora as he stomped into the room. The navy band shirt was long enough to be a dress on the brunette, so whether Sora had anything on under it was a mystery—either way he definitely did not wear actual pants.

Sora stuck his tongue out at Roxas in response, clearly not intending to; hopefully he had underwear on at least. Roxas had seen it before, albeit from Sora's eyes, but most of the crew living there had not and they'd be returning soon too… actually, maybe not? Nearly all of the group had also been part of Sora or in his heart before… so that meant theoretically everyone in their crew but Lea had seen Sora's dick. Huh. Well, hopefully it would stay that way.

“Might want to change those sheets, too,” Lea suggested, eyeing the bed, “Since, you know, most of us live here too now.”

“And pay rent,” Roxas pointed out, although technically rent was paid by the pool of communal munny collected from those they'd killed.

Sora groaned. “You two are the worst!”

"What, because we're making you clean your mess? It's for your own good you know," Roxas pointed out. "The girls will tease you relentlessly when they see it."

"Ugh, fine! Riku, you do it," Sora ordered, turning to the silverette.

"Can I finish getting dressed first?" Riku wondered.

"No."

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 601, late night;  
12 Remaining;   
San Fransokyo, apartment;  
POV Sora**

“Someone’s at the door,” Sora commented from his place on Riku’s lap fiddling with his GummiPhone. Riku, who had unfortunately put a new shirt on, was chatting with Ventus, who was sitting on the couch next to them with Chirithy in his lap. Riku seemed only half aware that he was gently rubbing circles into Sora’s side while resting his head on Sora’s. Sora was glad for this; if Riku were fully aware of how affectionate he was acting around the others, surely he would stop—everyone knew they were together now, but Riku still shied away from too much public affection (when he was aware of it, which wasn't frequent). Sora didn’t want him to stop… or maybe he did, considering he was still only in boxers, which were exposed since Riku’s one hand was under the oversized shirt. Getting an erection right now would be obvious and awkward. Vaguely Sora wondered what he and Riku technically were; they hadn’t actually verbally defined anything yet. Not that they really needed to, as their level of frequent physical intimacy was surely proof enough that they were essentially a couple, and they had both confessed their love. Still, maybe they should actually discuss definitions.

“Think it’s the pizza?” Roxas wondered, getting up from his seat at the table, where he’d been playing a handheld gaming console he’d stolen from one of his kills. They weren’t going to use it anymore, after all. Sora had mixed feelings on the others taking things that weren’t drugs or munny, but their logic was sound: the stuff probably would be trash otherwise.

“The pizza guy would have knocked,” Sora said with indifference. “This is three people, standing out there nervously whispering.” Unfortunately, despite enhanced hearing thanks to the whole reaper thing, Sora couldn’t make out what was being said.

“You mean, they’ve found us,” Ventus stated, only seeming slightly nervous. 

“Mhmm,” Sora confirmed, not quite paying attention. “We can take them though.” Besides, it was of little consequence if they were caught at this point, honestly. Only about a dozen hits remained, with a couple months left to do it; Xion and Lea were currently taking care of a couple, and they all had electronic scans of the list on their GummiPhones thanks to Ienzo so they knew the targets. Kairi and Naminé were out doing karaoke with some new superhero friends they’d made, so safe for now. Sora shot a quick message to the group chat telling them not to return. If needed, those four could take care of things. They probably wouldn’t have to, though; if need be, Sora could create a distraction to let the others escape. Rage form was ready to go if things got especially desperate. Of course, if the other precautions worked, maybe they wouldn’t have to fight at all.

“Do you know who it is?” Ven asked.

Sora tilted his head, listening. “Aqua, Mickey, and… huh. I don’t know that last voice. Sounds familiar though…”

The door suddenly burst in with a wave of… darkness?

“Vanitas!” Ventus yelled, abruptly standing up, which knocked Chirithy to the floor. Oh, duh. Sora had spoken to him earlier that day; he should have known the voice. 

“Ventus,” acknowledged the noirette as he strolled into the apartment, making a beeline for Ventus and stopping a foot away. “So, I hear you’ve been up to some pretty sketchy things for a Hero of Light.”

“How are you here? And why with them?” Ventus demanded, not backing away, rather glaring at Vanitas and ignoring the comment. Oh, right; Sora had forgotten to tell them Vanitas was around. Oops.

Vanitas raised his eyebrows. “Really? You’re not going to deny it?”

Ventus simply looked confused at that. “Why would I deny it? Obviously you already know.”

While those two continued their discussion, Sora watched the other two slowly walk into the room and tepidly assess the situation. Riku clutched Sora’s waist tighter, but nobody moved but the intruders. Roxas had even returned to playing his game.

Mickey stopped, frowning, and signalled Aqua to stop as well. She looked at him, clearly confused, and he said, “Something’s fishy." 

Aqua furrowed her brow, then seemed to realize what Mickey was getting at. "Why aren’t you three on the defensive?” she asked Roxas, Sora, and Riku.

Sora grinned, making sure to show fangs. He raised up his hand to shoulder height. “We anticipated this,” he told them, then snapped his fingers twice.

One of the benefits of staying in a very high-tech world was that there were high-tech security devices. At Sora’s signal, a gelatinous translucent pink goo on the ceiling fell down onto the two, molding around them to hold them in place with only their heads free. He’d prepared it months ago just in case. Although, to his slight embarrassment Sora hadn’t expected their hideout to be found so soon after his escape—otherwise he’d be wearing proper clothing. Then again, there was something poetic about defeating them while inappropriately dressed.

The goo trap missed Vanitas, but he was so absorbed in his discussion with Ventus that he didn’t notice. But, Sora had a feeling that didn't matter anyway.

“Vanitas! Do something!” Aqua called.

Vanitas waved a hand. “One sec, I’m busy.”

“Vanitas!” Mickey said shrilly.

Vanitas turned around. “Yeah, so, I’m on their side now,” he decided, gesturing to Ventus and the others.

Mickey sighed and looked down. “Should have figured as much,” he mumbled.

“So how’d you find us?” Sora asked Mickey and Aqua. He still hadn't moved from Riku’s lap.

“My doing,” Vanitas informed him, raising his hand. “Put a tracker on you when I ‘freed’ you. Can’t believe you fell for that so easily; did you really think they’d let me see you alone otherwise?” Sora groaned at that; of course. It was an obvious tactic; how could he have been so stupid? Riku patted Sora on the shoulder in an unnecessary gesture of comfort.

“Hey, we’ve got lots of dumplings!” A feminine voice called, and Kairi appeared in the door, which was still wide open. “The trainee chef at the place Naminé likes accidentally mixed some of the flavors, so they gave us them for free; lucky, huh?”

“Mixed the flavors?” Roxas asked, as the redhead, followed by Naminé, crossed the room to put the bags on the table, both ignoring the trapped Masters as they walked past them. “It’s not anything weird, is it?”

“Not really. Some are red bean and taro, others are green tea and taro. They’re pretty tasty actually,” Naminé supplied.

“Huh. Well, we’re gonna have a lot of food then; Ven ordered pizza… oh, hey, there’s the guy now,” Roxas commented. No one had closed the door yet; they should have been more cautious of that. Maybe investing in one that automatically closed would be wise.

“I got it!” Ventus declared, hopping up. He grabbed some munny from a table next to the door and handed it to the delivery guy, who looked quite nervous at what he was seeing.

“Naminé, take care of that,” Sora told her, and Naminé ran over to grab the guy before he could run away in fear. She led him down the hallway; Ven closed the door as he moved to put the pile of pizza boxes on the table, making room by knocking a few books to the floor.

“She’s not going to kill him, is she?” Mickey asked nervously.

Sora rolled his eyes. “Seriously? She’s just gonna make him forget he saw this. Don’t need him calling the cops.”

“Oh, hey, Sora, I got your text,” Kairi said as she checked her phone. “Huh. ‘Don’t come back, they found us’? Looks like you got it handled though,” she commented, looking up and grinning at Sora.

Riku, quiet thus far, finally said something, directed at the trapped Masters. “Why is it only you three? Er, two now, I guess.”

Sora frowned. True, that was suspicious. There could have potentially have been up to eight people here, yet they only sent two Masters and Vanitas? That didn’t add up… He closed his eyes, using a reaper ability to sense the people in the general vicinity. So far, just his neighbors. “They’re not in or around the building,” Sora concluded, putting his hand on his head—using that ability at such a wide range always made him a bit dizzy.

“You can tell that?” Aqua asked, surprised. She seemed to be overall calm despite an underlying note of panic, an attestment to her Master status.

Sora shrugged. “Perk of being… well, you know,” he said, trying to maintain a haughty air.

“Maybe,” Mickey said. “But further details would be nice. As well as an explanation as to why an entire generation of keyblade wielders has become serial killers.”

“Vigilantes,” Naminé corrected.

“A rose by any other name,” Aqua spat with vitriol.

“Quote from Shakespeare,” Riku whispered in Sora’s ear, noting his confusion at the phrase. That didn’t explain what it meant, though from context Sora could guess it meant something along the lines of that it made no difference to her what they called it: killing en masse was killing en masse.

“Well?” Mickey asked sharply. “Why are you doing this?”

Sora rolled his eyes. Might as well say, right? They had about a dozen left, maybe less by now. It'd get done regardless of if the Masters knew or not; there was no stopping them now. “In short, I have to kill a bunch of people or else everyone here dies. Well, except Vanitas. I was kinda very far behind so now they’re all helping.”

Mickey blinked a few times, processing that. “But why?”

“You’d really go that far to save Kairi?” Aqua asked, sounding disbelieving.

Sora rubbed the back of his head in a somewhat nervous gesture, losing a bit of his confidence; Riku squeezed his waist in a reassuring gesture. “Uh, well, no, not intentionally,” Sora explained. “I kinda misunderstood the deal—when she said those who died would return, I thought it only meant Kairi; I didn’t realize she meant that included the first time around…”

“First time around?” Mickey demanded.

Sora sighed. He hated having to explain this again. “Yeah; in short, I kinda used the Power of Waking to revive everyone and turn back time. Terra’s armor wasn’t there at first.”

“Then how did it appear?” Aqua asked, sounding more curious now than anything.

“That was my doing!” Naminé said cheerfully. She had been the only one to remember along with Sora. She was also excluded from the deal, as technically she returned on her own; Sora tended to forget that bit.

Mickey and Aqua took some time to process this. Vanitas appeared indifferent; Sora suspected somehow he’d known what had happened too, though wasn’t sure how he would. Maybe it had to do with him being basically darkness incarnate.

“And when you made the deal to save Kairi, you were turned into a demon,” Aqua stated.

Sora shrugged. “Technically, reaper, but that’s a subset of demon, so yeah. Anyway. Don’t think I haven’t forgotten how the others aren’t here. Where are they?” he demanded, voice suddenly forceful and imposing.

“I can get it out of them,” Naminé suggested. She’d become much less nervous about using her abilities through all this; Sora wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. “Then I'll make them forget everything.”

Sora shook his head. “They’ll still have lots of evidence; they’ll figure it out again eventually, especially if the others encounter them.”

“Why don’t you just torture and kill them?” Vanitas suggested. “Also, Sora, can you put some pants on?” Sora ignored the latter comment.

Ventus glared at the noirette. “We’re not torturing and killing Aqua,” he insisted. “Or Mickey,” he added as an afterthought. Vanitas grumbled something and dropped the subject. Somehow Ventus already had him under his thumb.

“Or anyone else we know,” Riku added.

Aqua suddenly frowned. “Where did Roxas and Kairi go?” she suddenly asked. The two had slipped out while the others were talking.

“Beats me,” Sora said without worry. Xion hadn’t answered the group chat, so the two had most likely gone to find her.

“But you killed Dilan because the lab had caught on,” Mickey said, backtracking to Riku's comment. "You knew him. He was innocent, unlike most of the people you've been killing."

Sora shook his head. “No. He was on the list. Not innocent.”

“List?” Aqua asked.

“Of course,” Sora said. Wasn’t it obvious they’d have a list? “How do you think we've been selecting our kills? We have a list of bad people, most of whom probably wouldn’t be caught for a while if at all.”

“Bad people?”

“Bad people,” Ventus answered, face darkening. “Dilan… back when the lab still experimented on children… uh, how do I put this…”

“Let's just say he paid a lot more attention to them than he should have—after hours,” Chirithy supplied with a dark look too.

Mickey and Aqua looked shocked at that. Sora understood—even if only slightly acquainted, it was still disturbing to learn that someone you knew could do something like that.

Sora then gasped as he sensed a presence; his eyes flung to the door. How?! How did they get here?! Terra, Donald, and Goofy had appeared in the doorway—which had still been wide open—looking equally as shocked at the situation. Donald held Kairi, who was calm, and Goofy held Roxas, who was struggling.

“How the fuck did you… I didn’t sense anyone!” Sora burst, trying not to panic. Aqua and Mickey they could take, sure. But the others too? Well, Donald and Goofy were pushovers, but Terra combined with the other two would be a difficult battle. Maybe they should cut their losses, allow someone to be captured—himself, he wouldn’t sacrifice friends—for the others to escape…

“You’re not sacrificing yourself again," Riku hissed in Sora’s ear, and Sora blushed. Well, guess that was that; they’d have to fight…

"Light barrier," Donald supplied. Ah, yeah, that would do it. Damn.

“Ventus…” Terra said, sounding heartbroken. “Why…?”

Vanitas groaned and complained, “Ugh, do we have to explain everything AGAIN?” Sora raised an eyebrow at the noirette; shouldn't that be his line?

“Hey Vanitas,” Ventus said casually, holding out his fist for a fist-bump. “I’ll do it.”

Vanitas turned and looked at Ventus in surprise. “Seriously?”

Ventus shrugged. “Sure. What’s the worst that could happen?” Sora narrowed his eyes at them. What were they…?

Vanitas bumped his fist with Ventus, and there was a bright flash of light.

When the light dissipated, only Ventus stood there, looking very confused.

“Ven…?” Aqua asked tepidly. Sora understood why; Ventus felt completely different. Had he and Vanitas merged? That easily? What had they discussed that led to that decision?

“Who are you?” Ventus asked Aqua sharply. “And where am I?” He looked around the room, eyes widening slightly. “Where are the others?”

“What others?” Terra asked as he fully entered the room with the other two. All thoughts of the prior conflict had been abandoned by everyone at this surprise occurrence.

“What do you last remember?” Naminé asked, giving Ventus a very strange look.

“Um…” Ventus thought for a moment. “The Keyblade War had started, and then…” Sora sighed in relief; it was only a year he’d forgotten... But, wait, why didn’t he remember any of them?

Ventus’s eyes lit up in realization. Had he remembered them? The next words proved he had in fact not. “Oh! Is this the place Master Ava wanted to send us? Gotta say, it’s awfully creepy to be the ‘New World’... And where are the others?”

“What others?” Mickey asked with a puzzled expression; at the same time Terra asked, “New World?”, Aqua asked “Master Ava?”, and Chirithy proclaimed “Oh shit!”

“Ephemer, Lauriam, Skuld, and Brain, of course,” Ventus answered, a clear ‘duh’ in his tone of voice. “And what do you mean, New—oh, fuck. Only the Union Leaders are supposed to remember that… uh, forget I said anything.”

“Wait…” Aqua began. Did she know something? “Ven… what year is it?” the bluenette asked nervously.

Ventus said a year that was a thousand years in the past. Everyone quieted for a moment, unsure what to do in such a situation, except for Chirithy, who seemed to be panicking, waving its arms around and comically running in a tight circle. Sora was plain confused. Had Ventus’s original memories returned? But… how could they be, if they were from that long ago? Oh. Time travel was a thing, wasn’t it? Maybe that’s what happened.

Ventus frowned. “I have to go find them,” he said with determination, and moved to head out the door. Chirithy scurried over to join him.

Terra blocked him.

Ventus summoned his keyblade… but not Wayward Wind. This one was spiky, in greens and purples and blacks, formed of shards of opaque crystal. No one had seen a blade like that before.

“Who are you?” Terra asked with heavy suspicion.

Ventus blinked. “Oh. You sounded like you knew me; have we not met after all? My name is Ventus… Please move; I need to find the others—if not the Union Leaders than at least some other Dandelions, because you’re definitely not Master Ava’s chosen… wait. Are you enemies? Are you trying to end the world? This place doesn’t look very nice... Ugh! This is so confusing!” he yelled; throughout the mini-rant his mannerisms seemed to shift from being similar to the Ventus they knew to closer to Vanitas, mixed with something different than either… Was this the original Ventus, from before his memories were lost, back when he and Vanitas were one person? Well, they did appear to have merged, so it'd make sense for the personality to be somewhere in-between the two.

Ventus grabbed Chirithy, then did some type of unfamiliar dodge-roll thing to get past Terra and darted out the door, speed supplemented with wind magic.

Everyone looked towards where Ventus had fled, but didn’t bother moving; the boy was long gone.

“Should we concern ourselves with that…?” Kairi, still being held by Donald, wondered aloud after a moment of silence. "Also, someone should close the door."

Aqua, still in goo, blinked at her, seemingly slowly coming out of some deep thoughts. “We’ll go after him later...” She steeled her gaze and voice as she snapped fully back to the present situation. “Right now, we have to deal with all of you.”

“Wait a second…” Roxas, also still being held, mused. “Did he say Lauriam? That name sounds familiar…”

“That was Marluxia’s original name,” Naminé supplied. “He and Larxene, originally Elrena, are also from the time of the first Keyblade War.”

“Okay, let’s not think about all that right now,” Mickey decided. “I have a feeling that that whole mess is meant for a future plotline in another universe.” The others all agreed, and the incident was promptly put out of their minds.

“Okay, where were we?” asked Terra as he finally closed the door.

“Oh, right,” Sora said, and snapped his fingers.

The goo-based trap aimed at Terra was stopped by a magic blast from Donald. Damn, that had been the last one. However, some good did come from it: Donald had relaxed his grip on Kairi in the process, allowing the redhead to elbow the duck in the face, knocking him out, before running over to the other members of their group.

Roxas then freed himself from Goofy, though a little more violently; he spit out some blood on his way over to stand with Kairi while Goofy held his arm tightly, looking unsure what to do with all their healers unavailable.

Terra cast some sort of mass sleep spell, causing everyone but Sora, Aqua, and Mickey—he’d accidentally hit Goofy—to fall asleep, then immediately he hit the hardened goo around Aqua and Mickey with an icy keyblade strike, shattering the traps. Damn; those had been expensive!

“Since when do you know sleep magic?” Sora complained, finally jumping up from Riku’s lap. Looked like he'd have to fight in his underwear after all.

“Since when are you immune?” Terra retorted.

"Demon, remember?" Sora grinned ferally, showing fangs, before turning invisible.

“Oh no!” Mickey declared, turning in place while brandishing his keyblade, waving the weapon around haphazardly as though he hoped to strike Sora that way. Yeah, good luck with that. 

Sora lithely dodged around Mickey’s keyblade and grabbed him with one arm, pinning the mouse to him and holding his own keyblade to the mouse’s throat. He reappeared, his wings, tail, and horns now showing. “Neither of you move, or I cut his throat,” Sora threatened Terra and Aqua.

“Sora!” Mickey squeaked in panic. “Please, don’t do this!”

“You’re the ones that stormed our base,” Sora pointed out. “Self-defense, you know.”

“This is not self-defense and you know it,” Aqua snapped.

Terra frowned. “Isn’t it though? He has a point; we were the ones that entered uninvited with intent to attack.”

“Terra!”

Terra shrugged. “Just saying… besides, that keyblade can’t cut anything that close to the hilt.” That was a good point; the shaft was a blunt cylinder, and Sora’s arms weren’t long enough to make the sharp pointed end reach the mouse’s throat.

So Sora swirled his tail around so the hard pointed spine at the tip pressed against Mickey’s throat.

“Pretty sure that little spike won’t kill him either,” Terra claimed.

Sora let out a snort and said in a haughty voice, “Maybe not, but it’ll incapacitate him enough for me to grab any number of the things in here that can kill mortals.” Sora wasn’t actually sure if he was or wasn’t mortal, but they didn’t know that, and it sounded cool to say. Maybe this whole reaper thing was getting to his head… Sora shrugged off the thought.

The others started waking up, immediately jumping up and drawing their weapons once they remembered what happened. Kairi and Naminé both cast a status-resistance spell over the group.

“Damn,” Terra swore. “Guess my sleep magic is still rather weak.”

“Sora, please don’t kill Mickey,” Riku calmly requested.

“Okay, fine,” Sora easily agreed, letting go and slinking back over to Riku's lap.

“And put some pants on!” Donald squawked to Sora. Oh, right. Sora forgot about that.

“Yeah, Sora, pants are always a good idea,” Goofy said sagely.

“Okay, fine,” Sora sighed, catching the pair of pants Naminé threw at him. Sora stood up to put them on, then realized something. “Naminé, these are Riku’s,” he calmly told the blonde.

Naminé shrugged, a teasing smile dancing on her face. “You’re wearing his shirt. Figured you’d want to match.”

Kairi giggled, then tossed Sora his actual pants, which he promptly put on before returning to Riku’s lap.

“It’s five against three,” Roxas then said to the three Masters. “Give up.”

“Hey! We exist too!” Donald squawked, referring to himself and Goofy. Everyone ignored him.

“Seven to three,” Lea said from the door, as he and Xion entered and raised their keyblades too.

"Again, we exist!" Donald warbled angrily.

“Close the door,” Sora reminded them, and Xion complied. They didn’t need another delivery-boy incident.

“Oooh, are we gonna fight them?” Xion asked excitedly.

“Probably,” Kairi told her. “But remember, you’re not allowed to kill them!”

“Aww.” Xion expressed disappointment, and Sora couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

“Actually, you can kill Donald,” Sora said casually, deciding to play around, and everyone looked at him in shock. Sora shrugged. “He’s on the list.” He pulled out the little black book and flipped to a random page. “See? Donald Fauntleroy Duck, Disney Castle,” he pretended to read.

“WHAT?” Roxas said loudly. “But isn’t he one of the ones who…”

“It is a bit of a conundrum,” Sora agreed, hoping he used the word correctly and trying not to give himself away by smiling. “But considering the deal’s that everyone who died in the graveyard will live after we finish the list, he’ll probably come back.” 

“Wait wait wait,” Lea said. “That list is of evil people. I know the duck has anger management issues, but that’s not nearly enough to get on the list…”

Now everyone was looking at Donald, who looked understandably immensely confused and shocked.

Sora realized he’d never fully explained things to them. “We have to kill all the people on this list or everyone dies.”

“So we have a classic trolley problem,” Roxas reasoned. “Kill one to save many, or let the many die for the one.”

“That’s not quite how it works,” Lea pointed out. “That’s about morality. Considering we’ve already killed hundreds to save dozens, I think that ship has sailed.”

“Sora, stop joking around,” Riku said firmly, ignoring Roxas and Lea’s comments. Right, he could look over Sora’s shoulder. Oops. “Now’s not the time. Donald is not on there; you’re not even open to the last page.”

Sora crossed his arms and fake-pouted. “Spoilsport.”

“...Seriously?!” Donald squawked angirly. “That wasn’t funny!”

“...Actually, it kinda was,” Xion supplied.

“Yeah, your faces were kinda hilarious,” Roxas agreed.

“Gawrsh,” Goofy said with clear relief on his face. “I’m sure glad that was a joke!"

“Who else is in that book, anyway?” Lea asked curiously. “Have you ever checked? We only have a dozen left, right?”

“Uhhh. Actually, I haven’t checked,” Sora admitted. “Guess I should actually make sure there isn’t anyone else we know.” He opened the book to the second-to-last page, scanning the list; most of the page was completed, and the rest he didn’t know… it was hard to believe they were already down to the last dozen people! He then turned to the final page… Sora’s eyes widened as he read the last name on the list. “Fuck,” he exclaimed, paling slightly.

Riku peered over Sora’s shoulder and let out a yelp. “What the fuck?! Didn’t we already kill that guy, what, five times?”

Roxas hurried over to take a look, too. “Fuck,” he said as well.

“Who is it?” Mickey asked in an urgent voice. “Five times… oh no! You don’t mean…?”

“Yup,” Sora confirmed grimly. “Xehanort is back.”

“...Then I suppose we have no choice but to join in your efforts,” Aqua said with a sigh. “But only with defeating Xehanort!” she quickly clarified. “You’re on your own with the other murders! And don’t think you’re off the hook for all of this, either!” she declared, pointing her finger at Sora, then looking around the room as she said fiercely, “And that means all of you!”

Mickey sighed in resignation too. “I agree; we seem to have little choice… Can’t that guy ever stay dead?”

“Apparently not,” Terra said drily. “Although this time he isn’t the one committing mass murder,” he pointed out, glaring at Sora.

“Yeah, yeah,” Sora said, waving a hand in dismissal, finding that he didn’t really care. “But it’s not like those people didn’t all deserve it,” he reasoned.

“Wak! How can you say that?!” Donald squawked. “There were innocent people that got hurt, too!”

Goofy looked at Sora sadly. “Yeah, Sora. Don’t you care about that?”

Sora found that he, in fact, actually did no longer care about that facet of his work. He shrugged. “Necessary sacrifice.”

Aqua narrowed her eyes. “Okay, that sounded exactly like Xehanort’s philosophy. We WILL be discussing that later. Do not make us have to take you out, too.”

“Promise us you’ll only stick to that list,” Mickey asserted. “If you don’t…” the mouse let the threat hang. “And that applies to all of you!” he clarified, looking around the room with a glare just like Aqua had.

Sora sighed. “Fine,” he agreed, although he had no intention of actually sticking to that. If people died, they died; collateral damage was unavoidable. Hitting their marks was all that mattered… although glancing around the room, maybe all his friends that had been helping him didn’t feel the same way. Oh, well. They’d deal, just like they’d been dealing for more than half a year.

Aqua opened her mouth as though to say something more, but didn't get the chance.

“You know, what are the chances that the death goddess brought Xehanort back purposely just to mess with us?” Lea wondered, in a clear attempt to redirect the conversation, which Sora was grateful for. The Masters wouldn’t change his mind, and Sora was getting sick of trying to show them reason.

“That’s a good point,” Sora agreed. “It could be just a joke. Someone should count the number of people on the list. We only need to kill a thousand.”

“A thousand!” Mickey proclaimed in shock. Right, Sora had never given them the number. “Why would you make such a deal?”

“To save me,” Kairi chimed in, although Sora was pretty sure he’d told them that already. Maybe the number was the unexpected part. Kairi continued with an eye roll, “Apparently ‘I’ll save you no matter what’ actually meant ‘no matter what’, mass murder included.”

“Wait a second…” Naminé interjected. “You said the deal included everyone killed in the graveyard. Did she specifically say only those you personally brought back and Kairi?”

Sora thought back to what the goddess had said. “You know what, I don’t think she did… why?”

“Because Xehanort died in the battle too,” Kairi realized.

Everyone fell silent for a moment as they processed that; Sora was fairly certain his face had turned as white as a sheet. Fuck; that meant it was his fault Xehanort had returned.

“Sora, you really need to get a lawyer next time you sign a contract with a death goddess,” Roxas pointed out.

“Yeah, probably…” Sora said with a sigh, managing to collect himself despite how upset he was at his faux pas. Then, he noticed the bag and boxes that sat forgotten on the table, and turned to the unexpected guests in the room while donning his best fake smile. “Hey, while you’re here, do you want pizza and dumplings? We have plenty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope what I did with Ven/Van wasn't too silly; I know it doesn't fully fit in. I wrote that bit back when I started this entire thing (I don't usually write scenes in order, often writing parts of one then going back and working on others, etc.), and originally I intended this fic to be much more comedic than I ended up making it, but I liked the segment too much to eliminate it.
> 
> Next up: The fight against Xehanort, and what happens after the list is completed!
> 
> The final chapter will be posted Wednesday 12/23 or Thursday 12/24! Just in time for Christmas, for those of you who celebrate it. :)


	11. Welcome to the Black Parade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They fight Xehanort, then the Goddess makes her appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here it is: the final chapter! It's a nice 4k words; enjoy!

**Day 607, early afternoon;  
1 Remaining;   
GummiShip;  
POV Lea**

Lea was absentmindedly gazing out the GummiShip window from the ship’s bench seat, watching the other ship ahead of them, when Roxas stomped over and flopped down next to him, shoving his head into Lea’s chest. The two of them, Xion, Kairi, Naminé, Sora, and Riku were sharing this ship while everyone else had taken a second one. Lea couldn't help but notice that their group and the Master's group had been separated, whether by design or subconsciously… Lea wondered how the dynamics of the larger group containing everyone would change once all this was over. There was absolutely no chance it would return to the same state it had been before all this.

“Make them stop!” Roxas groaned.

“Make who stop?” Lea wondered.

“Can’t you guess? Sora and Riku are practically sucking each others’ faces off! They’re going to crash the ship!”

Lea glanced to the front; sure enough, the pilot’s seat was occupied by two people. Riku was supposed to be driving, but somewhere along the lines Sora had decided to sit in his lap and entertain himself. Which, honestly, was understandable; the drive was fairly boring, and they were about to go fight a major battle, again.

Lea shrugged. “Let them have this; we all might die later today, after all.”

Xion, who had been sitting next to Lea, laughed. “It’ll be fine, Lea. It’s not like we’ll be fighting the goddess; it’s just Xehanort!” True; although a tough final boss, numerous renditions of Xehanort had been defeated by those in the group numerous times.

“Yeah, he’s a pushover,” Kairi agreed; she and Naminé were seated on the bench seat opposite, hand-in-hand. Lea had wondered before if there might be more to that duo, but when he asked them the two had simply laughed and told them they felt more like twin sisters than anything—or rather, triplets, including Xion in that dynamic.

“Kairi, he literally killed you last time,” Naminé commented drily.

“You know, maybe you should sit this one out,” Lea told Kairi. “If you die again—”

“Oh, no, I’m good,” Kairi assured them. “Sora said the death goddess has to keep me alive as part of the deal, until this all is done.”

“Are you sure about that?” Roxas asked skeptically. “She’s not exactly stellar with contracts, as we all painfully discovered.”

"No, that's Sora who isn't good with them," Xion corrected. Yeah, Lea had to agree with that. And if Kairi were killed again… well, who knew what kind of crazy deal Sora would make without reading the fine print.

Kairi frowned. “You know, you might have a point… Still gonna fight though! I won’t die this time, you’ll see!”

“Right… well, take a kupo coin just in case, okay?” Naminé suggested, handing Kairi the coin.

“Fine, whatever,” Kairi grumbled, clearly still not happy with that, though pocketed it anyway.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 607, early afternoon;  
1 Remaining;   
GummiSpace;  
POV Aqua**

Aqua took a deep breath as she stared out of the GummiShip window into the vast expanse of GummiSpace. They could do this; they’d faced the man before, multiple times. This time, there was hopefully only one of him, not thirteen, and they had a significant numerical advantage. While the younger wielders finished killing people—she still cringed thinking about it—the rest of them had worked on figuring out where the last target, Xehanort, resided. Instead they’d received a note from him, stating that he’d be waiting to confront them in the Keyblade Graveyard, true to his dramatic nature. Considering the message had come nearly immediately after the last target on the list had been killed, Aqua had to wonder if the death goddess had anything to do with that; would they end up confronting her too? Aqua hoped not; she definitely did not want to fight a goddess!

“Hey, it’ll all work out,” Terra told her, stepping up behind Aqua and putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Will it?” Aqua wondered. “I mean, I know we can defeat Xehanort, but what about Ven? After this, we need to find him… but he’s merged with Vanitas now. Is our Ven gone?” Aqua wasn't sure what she'd do without Ventus around; he'd more or less been the equivalent of a little brother to her, even if he allegedly was fifty times her age.

“Aqua, Mickey said we shouldn’t think about that,” Terra pointed out. “Just focus on the upcoming battle for now, okay?”

Aqua sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.” One thing at a time. She shook her head. “I still can’t believe they were the killers all along…”

“Yeah, same. Did we really do the right thing, letting them continue?”

“I don’t see any other option,” Aqua stated, although she worried about that too. Should they have tried capturing them despite the odds, locking them up while they searched for another way? Donald and Goofy had briefly looked into ways to kill the goddess herself, which would have surely ended the deal, but all they had found were single-use weapons crafted via blood rituals requiring tremendous sacrifice.

Where had they gone wrong in mentoring these children? Was this how Yen Sid and Eraqus had felt when Xehanort betrayed them? But… would they have willingly worked with Xehanort if a bigger threat were on the horizon? Aqua wasn’t sure they would have… but what other choice had they had? Xehanort was dangerous, and had to be stopped at any cost… or maybe not. Maybe the cost was actually too high, letting the kids continue the killing, just like Sora’s cost to save Kairi had been much too high.

Well, they were in this deep already, Aqua supposed; there was no turning back now. However, she would definitely be having a long talk with the children about their morals once this was all over.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 607, late afternoon;  
1 Remaining;   
Keyblade Graveyard;  
POV Kairi**

Kairi took a deep breath as she stepped out of the GummiShip and onto the smaller rocky field before the chasm that led to the Keyblade Graveyard. Why they could only land here rather than directly in the Graveyard was anyone's guess.

“You okay?” Sora asked, putting a hand on Kairi’s shoulder.

“Yeah, just nervous,” Kairi admitted.

Sora grinned; if Kairi weren’t used to it, she’d be a little scared by those fangs. “It’ll all be fine! It always is!” the brunette asserted confidently.

That was debatable, considering last time ended in Kairi’s death and Sora becoming a demon tasked with murdering people, but Kairi opted not to mention that. Either way, they all knew how the first part of this would go: they’d walk through the chasm, fighting heartless along the way, and when they reached the open expanse at the end Xehanort would be standing there, ready to fight.

Or not.

“So… where are the heartless?” Roxas wondered once they’d travelled through a third of the chasm.

“Sora’s probably keeping them away with his demon abilities,” Donald grumbled, glaring at the boy for some reason. Wasn’t that a good thing?

“Sora!” Mickey chided. “We told you not to use darkness unless absolutely necessary!” Ah, so that’s why they were upset.

“Yeah yeah,” Sora said dismissively with an eye roll. 

“Sora,” Aqua said firmly. “You need to stop this. There’s twelve of us here. We can easily take out heartless; there’s no need to use the darkness.”

“Seriously?” Sora said with a laugh. “You act like it’s a bad thing! I’m keeping the heartless away; easy ones or not, that’s a good thing!”

“Yeah, we need to focus on Xehanort,” Riku agreed. “Fighting heartless will just tire us all out.”

“Riku! Not you too!” Mickey declared, alarmed.

“I don’t see the big deal, either,” Kairi chimed in.

“Well, Gawrsh, if Kairi says it’s okay, I’m sure it is!” Goofy decided.

Terra looked at Kairi, eyes narrowed. “I don’t know…” Kairi tried not to react; had he noticed that she, too, had begun to develop some darkness? True, it was just a pinprick, but still. Kairi truthfully found it miraculous that no one had yet noticed her Princess of Heart status had subtly left her, the pure light being passed on to who-knows-who. Kairi wondered if Sora’s demon powers, or maybe even the goddess, had cloaked that from the Masters, along with all the other increases in darkness that Sora’s helpers had been developing. Kairi had to wonder if perhaps the Masters were right, and that the group had in fact gone too far…

Well, that could be thought about later; it’s not like they could currently do anything about that.

“Hey, looks like we’re near the end,” Roxas pointed out a while later. Indeed, up ahead was a break in the chasm, clearly leading to a field of keyblades, although through the dusty air it was too blurry to see far into it.

“Why does that bastard like this place so much?!” Xion complained as she wiped some dust, courtesy of a strong gust of wind, from her eyes.

“Language!” Aqua chided.

Sora scoffed. “You’re not our mom.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t try to teach you proper language!”

Sora narrowed his eyes at the bluenette. “Fuck, shit, bitch, bastard, cunt—”

“Sora!” Mickey loudly interrupted. “What has gotten into you?!”

Lea snickered. “I’d say, late teenage rebellion.”

“Shut up,” Sora said abrasively, although Kairi noticed he was subtly smiling. He seemed to be having fun.

“Sora,” Naminé said calmly, “I know you're enjoying yourself, but maybe it’s not a good idea to be so antagonistic before we fight Xehanort? We all should be getting along.”

“She has a point,” Kairi chimed it, although she had to admit it was fun watching them fight.

Sora sighed, demeanor changing completely. So he had been playing around, as suspected. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “Sorry; just a bit on edge…” Kairi had the feeling that once again Sora was hiding something. She wondered if it had anything to do with the strange ivory knife attached to Sora’s belt, which was covered in runes; he had been wearing it a lot lately, always keeping it near him, although was incredibly evasive whenever anyone asked about it. Usually when not in the base it was hidden beneath the red crimson cloak most of them now wore when hunting, but when they tried to wear them this time the Masters had insisted they all wear their magical clothing instead, saying something about how they should at least attempt to look like the good guys. Kairi wasn't sure why that mattered, seeing as they were alone here, but it was what it was.

Finally they entered the main feature of the Keyblade Graveyard: the vast expanse of dead keyblades sticking into the ground like tombstones. In the center stood none other than Xehanort. The group approached until they were close enough to talk yet far enough to avoid any abrupt attacks, Sora standing in front with Kairi and the others clustered behind him.

“Ah, Sora, so we meet again,” Xehanort greeted. “I must thank you for bringing me back to life.”

“Yeah, sorry, but that was a mistake we’re here to correct,” Sora told the man.

“Well, then, I regret to inform you that you will fail in that matter. Our previous encounter was a fluke; this time, Darkness will snuff out the Light.”

Sora began laughing; he couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry, but have you actually checked my darkness levels lately? I’m a demon. This is a battle of Darknesses, not Dark versus Light. Well, at least in my case.”

“Well, that is no matter,” Xehanort said, looking unsurprised. “I will still prevail.”

“Yeah, good luck with that,” Sora sneered.

“Sora, maybe it’s not a good idea to antagonize the big bad guy?” Lea suggested.

Sora crossed his arms. “Pfft. We beat him when there was thirteen of him; now there’s just one.”

“So you think,” Xehanort said haughtily, then raised his arms, summoning a horde of heartless. “Now you are the ones outnumbered!” he declared. Kairi would normally be concerned about that, but she knew they wouldn't be a problem this time. 

Sora, dramatic as always, outright laughed at that. “Seriously? Did you do any research?” Sora waved an arm, and the heartless turned to face Xehanort.

“WHAT?!” Xehanort burst. "How?!"

“Like I said, I'm a demon," Sora said casually. “Now, what were you saying about being outnumbered?”

Xehanort practically growled as he summoned a group of nobodies to fight the heartless, which they began doing immediately. Sora looked a little frustrated at that; Kairi was actually glad Sora couldn’t control the nobodies, too.

“Are we sure we have the right bad guy here?” Aqua whispered to Terra, overheard by Kairi. Truthfully, Kairi had to wonder a little herself… no, she trusted Sora. The demon thing was only until they finished the task; a task that had only existed because of Kairi’s mistake. It was her fault this whole mess had happened, so she had to help clean it up regardless of method.

“You know, I’m not actually sure anymore,” Terra admitted quietly. 

Mickey, too, had been listening in and appeared to have reservations. “All we can do now is defeat Xehanort and see what happens after,” he stated nervously. “Hopefully Sora’s darkness goes away with the demon thing, and then it all will go back to normal.”

Kairi actually doubted that; she had a sneaking suspicion that Sora had still not been telling them everything. Come to think of it, he hadn’t actually told anyone that the demon thing would go away; they'd all just assumed that… and everyone else had fallen pretty far into darkness, too, so their previous 'normal' was not even on the radar. 

With a start, Kairi realized that everyone else had already begun fighting. Xehanort was quite the formidable opponent, able to defend everyone at once! A few strikes landed, mostly by Sora’s tail as Xehanort clearly was unused to someone fighting with such, but for the most part the villain easily parried everyone or teleported away. Teleportation was not a very fair move! Although Sora’s invisibility proved useful to counter that, too… Kairi really hoped the guy didn’t have any ultimate forms or anything; although if he didn’t, that would probably mean fighting the goddess, because for some reason it seemed fights against strong final-boss-type opponents couldn’t ever be singular in their universe.

Kairi leapt into the battle too, assaulting Xehanort with a downward strike, only to be knocked back and tumble onto the ground; thankfully she knew a recovery ability and was back on her feet nearly instantly.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t instantly enough to react to Xehanort teleporting behind her and grabbing her by the neck, holding her up in the air while laughing, the bastard. Kairi was pissed as she kicked her legs trying to struggle free; she couldn’t believe that, once again, she was stuck in this position! Couldn’t she ever be anything but a damsel!? ...Yes. The answer was yes, she could be. Kairi was confident that this wouldn’t end the same way. 

“Are you fucking serious?!” Sora called, rage clear.

“Of course! With this, all your efforts go to waste!” Xehanort declared with a mocking grin. “You’ve killed all those people for nothing!” He brought his blade down, slashing Kairi across the back, again.

This time, however, Kairi did not die. Instead, a moogle-like noise sounded, a light shone, and Kairi felt the pain in her back vanish. She twisted out of Xehanort’s grip, very much alive. Kairi stabbed him in the belly with her keyblade; it went straight through. She froze in shock at the development, staring at the Keyblade buried into the flesh; had she landed a finishing blow?

“Damn moogles,” Xehanort growled as he clutched Kairi’s keyblade, trying to pull it out even as the light faded from his eyes. His own keyblade tumbled to the ground, staying in physical form instead of dissolving, confirming there was no chance of survival. His metaphysical heart floated out of his chest, ascending somewhere into the sky, further cementing the fact that Xehanort was undeniably dead.

Before Kairi could pull her keyblade out, Sora appeared next to her in that darkness-cloak he called rage-form, undoubtedly triggered by seeing Kairi slashed. Kairi resisted rolling her eyes at that; in an effort to prevent this, he had been made aware ahead of time that she had the kupo coin! Well, it worked in their favor, Kairi supposed, cringing as Sora drove his clawed hand straight through Xehanort’s heart, tearing out the physical organ. It was overkill for sure, but at least they knew that the guy was undoubtedly dead this time.

•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•×•

**Day 607, night;  
0 Remaining;   
Final World;  
POV Sora**

Sora exited rage form to find he was holding a bloody heart in his hand. The physical organ, that was, not the pretty glowing astral version. Sora looked around, finding that on the ground in front of him was Xehanort’s body, clearly dead by his stillness and the giant holes in both his chest and abdomen. The guy’s keyblade was still manifested yet lifeless and dulled, confirming such. Sora tossed the heart on top of the man and then wiped his bloody hand on his pants, noting that Kairi stood next to him with her keyblade covered in blood, very much alive and uninjured despite Xehanort having delivered a fatal slash. Right, the kupo coin… So, Kairi must have landed the final blow against Xehanort.

Before Sora could say anything to the redhead, there was a flash of bright light, and Sora suddenly stood in the world of sea and sky, although this time it was night rather than day, with the still sea they were standing on reflecting the brilliant array of stars and cosmic dust visible in the sky above. He looked around; those who had been helping him kill stood clustered around him: Riku, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Kairi, and Naminé.

“Congratulations; I didn’t expect you to actually do it!” chimed a voice that both sparkled like bells yet had an air of deadliness to it. In front of them stood the six-winged horned Death Goddess that Sora had made the deal with. “It was so incredibly clever of you to involve your friends,” she praised.

“So, the deal is done, then?” Sora confirmed, although he was aware there was one part left of it that he’d kept a secret from everyone… which would soon be taken care of. “We can all go home now?”

The Death goddess smirked and raised an eyebrow. “All of you? Sora, don’t tell me you forgot the rest of the deal.”

“Rest of the deal?” Sora asked with false innocence as he slowly inched closer to her; he noted his friends were about to follow, so he subtly signaled behind his back for them to stop.

The Death Goddess sighed, sounding slightly fond. “Oh, what am I going to do with you.”

“Let me go?” Sora offered.

Within a blink of an eye, the Goddess moved behind Sora; she grabbed him around the waist with one arm and caressed his cheek with the other. “I’m afraid I can’t do that; you sold your soul to me, remember?” Sora’s wings, horns, and tail appeared involuntarily.

“Oh, that,” Sora said casually, fiddling with something by his belt. “Yeah, that’s not going to fly.”

The Goddess scoffed. “Well, you don’t have a choi—”

Sora thrust his hand behind him, the dagger in it driving itself easily into the Goddess’s chest. He twisted, pushing away from her and hopping backwards a safe distance.

The Goddess gasped, then stood up with a smirk, unphased with the dagger still in her chest. Sora stayed calm, though, silently counting backwards from ten. “You are always such a surprise! Truly, though, you didn’t expect such a simple trifle to kill a Goddess of Death?”

Sora was the one to laugh, grinning maliciously as the countdown reached zero. “Might want to double-check that.”

The Goddess looked down at her chest and gasped, clutching it as the dagger’s poisonous magic finally took effect. “H-how?” she stammered, as her body began slowly disintegrating, starting from where the dagger was lodged into her chest.

Sora shrugged. “After misunderstanding the deal so much, I learned how to do proper research,” he told her smugly. “Once you die, I’ll be free of the deal.”

The Goddess blinked, then surprisingly smiled with sadistic amusement as she dissolved. “I suppose then I must congratulate you. However, do not think yourself free so easily. When one kills Death, after all, one becomes Death oneself...” With those parting words, the Goddess vanished completely, and the dagger fell to the water with an unexpected hollow clattering sound before it too dissolved; weapons to kill Death were single-use, after all.

Sora frowned, pondering those words. What did she mean by—Sora gasped as he doubled over in pain. He heard his friends call for him; some began to run to him, but stopped. Sora sensed his horns elongating and felt his black bat-like wings stretch out, doubling in size as they fleshed out and became fully working wings. But it didn’t stop there; two more wings sprung from his back above the others, then two more below, in some sort of twisted version of a seraphim.

And the power that flowed through him! It was indescribable… what was happening to him? Why was he gaining all this? This was…

Oh.

That’s what’s the Goddess had meant when she said killing Death makes one Death; Sora had taken on the role of Goddess—er, God—of Death. 

Sora pondered this development as he noticed his friends slowly approaching him. He… well, he actually didn’t find the idea too bad. A God, huh. Sora never expected he’d ever be such, let alone one of Death, but it felt nice. That might just be the sudden rush of power though, Sora had to concede. Still, this was a role that was essential to the universe. Yes, despite the inherent morbidness of it, it wasn’t necessarily bad… and Sora would be good for the role, considering he wasn’t malignant or anything, probably. He certainly wouldn’t make cruel deals like the Goddess had made with him… well, at least he wouldn’t make the terms so vague and would make extra sure people fully understood the terms before they signed the contracts.

“Sora?” Riku asked tepidly, now standing directly in front of him. “Are you…?”

“I think I just became a God of Death,” Sora confirmed.

“Hmmm…” Riku considered that for a moment, and Sora shifted nervously, wondering what Riku would think about this development. Would he reject Sora? Was Sora being a death god too much for Riku? Riku then threw Sora a curve ball question. “Does that mean you can make people immortal too?” It was a given that Sora, now being a God of Death, was immortal.

Sora thought about that for a moment. Yes, he could, he realized; somehow along with godhood came the knowledge of his new abilities. However… “I think so, but not while keeping you a human. You’d have to become one of my subordinates…”

“You mean, a reaper?” Riku clarified, and Sora nodded. “Okay, I’m cool with that,” the silverette decided casually.

“What!” Sora declared. “You want to be… what?”

“Well, how else am I going to stay with you forever?” Riku pointed out.

“And you don’t mind having to kill?” Sora clarified. That was a reaper’s job, after all.

Riku shrugged. “I’ve already been doing that. You know I’ll do anything for you.”

Sora blushed at the sentiment. It was a good point, and who was he to deny Riku anything? “Okay,” Sora easily agreed, stepping forwards and reaching out to put his hand over Riku’s heart. “Let’s see if I can do this right…” He closed his eyes and concentrated on changing Riku.

When Sora opened his eyes, Riku had small black horns, fangs, a tail, and wings, similar to Sora’s prior visage except the wings were fully-formed rather than torn.

“Cool,” Riku said, twisting to look at himself.

Sora stepped to the side to look at the others, recognizing the expressions on their faces. He grinned mischievously, showing fangs. “So, let me guess: you all want to be my reapers, too?”

Not one of them declined the offer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed that wild ride! Thanks so much for sticking through to the end!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos always welcome! <3 Tell me what you like or want more of, and maybe I'll incorporate it into this or future fics! I take all suggestions into consideration.


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